Male Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Portland Trail Blazers hire CMO & EVP (Score 50)

The Portland Trail Blazers (PTB) announced it hired Kevin Kinghorn as CMO & EVP in June 2022. Kinghorn most recently served as chief digital officer of PS&Co., where he led the sports and digital teams. He was Canucks Sports & Entertainment's marketing VP prior to that. In his new role, Kinghorn will be responsible for all marketing innovation and technology functions for the PTB and its home arena, Moda Center. 

According to Pathmatics, the NBA earned 2.4b impressions YTD through Facebook ads (39%), Instagram ads (29%), desktop display ads (17%), Twitter ads (8%), mobile display ads (3%) and desktop video ads (3%). It placed the majority (94%) of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, reddit.com and twitch.tv. It placed the remainder (6%) indirectly through Yahoo DSP and Display & Video 360 onto sites such as 11alive.com, 247sports.com, 270towin.com, 5newsonline.com and 9news.com. It spent approximately $16.7m on digital display ads YTD, a 15% decrease from $19.6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend jumped from $17.4m in 2020 to $37.1m in 2021. 

Per iSpot, the NBA spent $15m on national TV ads YTD, a significant increase from $6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend jumped from $5.8m in 2020 to $18.3m in 2021. This year, it placed ads during programming such as NBA Basketball, Inside the NBA, 2022 Billboard Music Awards, 9-1-1 and The Equalizer.

The above spend information refers to the National Basketball Association (NBA). No national spend data is reported specifically for the PTB. 

Sellers-- The NBA and the PTB target male Gen-Z and millennial basketball fans. The NBA promotes its teams through national TV and digital display ads. The league significantly increased spend in 2021 after it reduced ad spend in 2020, due to the pandemic. The team does invest in OOH, print and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should contact the new CMO for more information to see what types of ad space you can offer. 

Agency & martech readers-- I believe PTB has an in-house media team, but it does not work with any agencies at this time. Get in touch with the new CMO soon to be top-of-mind to see if you can pick up any of the team's business. Those of you with sports marketing experience will likely have an advantage.