{"id":16226,"date":"2023-06-15T16:35:52","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T20:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/?p=16226"},"modified":"2025-01-30T06:07:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T11:07:02","slug":"best-ads-nba-finals-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/insights\/blog\/best-ads-nba-finals-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The best ads of the NBA finals 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basketball season has come to an end with the 2023 NBA Finals finishing this week, and while it\u2019s sad to see the sport fade away for the next few months, it&#8217;s thrilling to see its epic conclusion. Not only was the basketball game a great watch, but so were the ads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year the Denver Nuggets took home the top prize in basketball, but there were plenty of advertising winners too. Some of the best campaigns from this year struck a balance between celebrating sports, making people laugh, and communicating brand value. Thus, showing how sports advertising can become an valuable and integral part of an effective advertising and marketing strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Viewership was also up this year, with the 2022-23 NBA playoffs becoming the most-viewed series in five years. According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBAPR\/status\/1668738333256630272\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NBA communications<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0 each game averaged 5.47 million TV viewers in the USA. These ad spots were well worth the ad spend for marketers. With so many eyes watching, this was an optimal time to make an impact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our top 3 NBA commercials from 2023 finals<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are some of the best commercials from the NBA finals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Michelob ULTRA &#8211; Team Plane\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rnlGf-vamjI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rnlGf-vamjI<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Featuring Jimmy Butler, this ad does a great job of showing how a good beverage can make it easy to have some fun, no matter where you are. Who doesn\u2019t like to dance around to a classic with a beer in hand? A familiar face to basketball fans and a familiar song to, well, everyone, makes this ad an instant success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. YouTube TV &#8211; More Dunks\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube TV | More Dunks\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qDNnFhmIaSo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The video giant brilliantly used gameday as an opportunity to show just how much its YouTube TV service has to offer basketball fans. In addition to its convincing features, YouTube uses this ad spot to bring enticing visuals and hypnotizing music, holding its audience&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/illumin.com\/insights\/guides\/how-to-catch-attention-in-advertising\/\">attention<\/a> for the entire thirty seconds and making the most out of its time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. NBA &#8211; We\u2019re All in the Finals\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"NBA FINALS  - &quot;WE ARE ALL IN THE FINALS&quot; 2022-23\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/svPln8T4pPQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This round-up wouldn\u2019t be complete without talking about the powerful NBA advertising for this year\u2019s finals. With voices, faces, and names from across popular media, this ad is an instant attention-getter. Not only that but the powerful narration and storytelling make for a compelling call to action, working to drive viewership for the last game of the NBA season. \u201cWe are all the finals\u201d means that while one team will win the trophy, the emotions of the game belong to everyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Takeaways from the NBA Finals ads<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking to capture the minds and imaginations of basketball fans, these ads draw upon some common, but effective strategies:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Theme matters &#8211; <\/b>the NBA <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ads from this year\u2019s finals did a fantastic job at staying on theme, making it easy to hold the attention of sports fans.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Famous actors &#8211;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or in this case, famous basketball players. Hiring familiar faces makes for a well-entertained audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Unique storytelling &#8211; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">like with most successful ads, these ads are one of a kind. Their <a href=\"https:\/\/illumin.com\/insights\/blog\/unique-creatives-in-a-crowded-advertising-landscape\/\">creativity<\/a> lets them stand out and grab people\u2019s attention with ease.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you want more articles like this, be sure to check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/illumin.com\/insights\/most-viewed-video-ads-march-madness-2022\/\">Most viewed video ads of March Madness<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/illumin.com\/insights\/blog\/best-ads-stanley-cup-playoffs\/\">The best Stanley Cup Playoff ads.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/illuminHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Follow @illuminHQ<\/a><script src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.linkedin.com\/in.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> \u00a0 lang: en_US <\/script><script type=\"IN\/FollowCompany\" data-id=\"1189312\" data-counter=\"right\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"micro-cta-wrap pos-relative\"><div class=\"micro-cta-main radius-24 flex pos-relative\"><div class=\"micro-cta-image\"><figure class=\"micro-cta-thumb object-fit pos-relative\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/demo_CTA-2.png\" alt=\"micro-cta@2x\" title=\"\"><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"micro-cta-text pos-relative\"><span class=\"optional-text\">Made for marketers<\/span><div class=\"h3\">Learn how illumin unlocks the power of journey advertising<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball season has come to an end with the 2023 NBA Finals finishing this week, and while it\u2019s sad to see the sport fade away for the next few months, it&#8217;s thrilling to see its epic conclusion. Not only was the basketball game a great watch, but so were the ads.\u00a0 This year the Denver [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,19],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-16226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-insights","tag-sports-advertising"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/illumin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}