Knicks Fans "Like" What They See with Splash Page on Knicks.com

As the New York Knicks head into the 2011 NBA Playoffs, the team is featuring a terrific splash page on its official website, http://www.nba.com/knicks (ala Knicks.com), that encourages fans to "like" their official Facebook page. The creative digital marketing tactic serves as an effective way to drive interest and awareness for the team's social media initatives amongst 200,000 unique site visitors per day (per Compete.com, the Knicks' website attracted 6.2MM unique visitors in February 2011).

To drive fan participation in their social media efforts, the Knicks are offering a variety of incentives, including access to an exclusive pre-sale for all playoff tickets, a chance to win a pair of free tickets to see the Knicks take on the Chicago Bulls on April 12th, and a chance to win a $50 gift card that is redeemable via the Knicks' official online team store.

Once fans click through the splash page, the Knicks are providing a call-to-action via interactive digital inventory on the team's official website. Since the Splash page was posted on March 12, "likes on the New York Knicks' Facebook page were up 27% (130K total) and their Monthly Active Users spiked 18%... pretty remarkable success.

Check out some visualizations of the campaign below. Hats off to the Knicks on executing such a terrific campaign!

A special thanks to Lowell Berg of Ohio University for his insights and contributions to this column!

 

 

Let Fans Go In-Depth with Facebook Spotlight Features

Sports organizations looking for ways to promote their players (e.g. rookies, free agent signees, veterans) and give fans new, in-depth insights should consider creating a series of Facebook Spotlight Features.

The NBA Summer League did a tremendous job sitting down with NBA prospects Eric Bledsoe and Wesley Johnson to give fans a personal tour of their Facebook accounts and personal life. The video series allowed fans to learn more about their personal experiences and relationships off the court. The players talked about their Draft Day experiences, their birthdays, friends, graduation day, and family. The excercise may be fun to also do with the dance team, mascot, coaches, and fans.

Teams interested in the concept (and can find players willing to share their personal Facebook account) should model the Eric Bledsoe feature (1st video enclosed below) that has a nice, clean picture-in-picture format. Check out the NBA Summer League Facebook video tours below: