Also in this report:

– Stirring up the excitement: NBA marketing personalities, entertainment value: Page 30

– Franchises put focus on community involvement: Raptors, Grizzlies reach out to youth with Stay in School message: Page 33

– Sales of licensed goods skyrocketing: Page 36

It should be no surprise that big business loves basketball, at least basketball the way the National Basketball Association plays it.

The nba, along with its 29 teams, is a sports marketing marvel, offering action and attitude that rival Disney for entertainment value.

When it comes to sponsorship, there does not seem to be any shortage of interest.

More than 30 sponsors – with Air Canada and Shoppers Drug Mart among the earliest – have partnered with the Raptors, the Grizzlies and the league to join in the excitement of a brand new entertainment option.

There was also an extraordinary enthusiasm and co-operative spirit among the partners to get the game going, such as Shoppers Drug Mart’s involvement during the two teams’ season tickets drives in 1994.

Vancouver and Toronto each had to sell 12,5000 season tickets by Dec. 31, 1994 as a condition of getting the nba franchise.

Shoppers stepped in to help, buying 4,250 Raptors tickets and 2,500 Grizzlies tickets to sell through its stores.

Sponsors also have high hopes of cashing in on the cachet and draw of this new experience.

From court-side signage, in-arena incentive giveaways, and in- and out-of-arena promotions to community outreach programs and value-added associations with the teams, corporate sponsors gain numerous opportunities to leverage their names and products.

In February 1995, Air Canada, the official airline of the Raptors and the Grizzlies, gained further recognition when the Raptors announced – on the same day Canada and the u.s. signed the Open Skies agreement allowing Air Canada to fly into more American cities – that Air Canada Centre would be the name of the team’s new arena, which is expected to open in late 1997.

Kym Robertson, Air Canada’s manager of corporate communications, says ‘partnering with the Raptors and Grizzlies is a way of gaining name recognition in the u.s., especially among the 40,000 travel agencies there.

‘Within three years, we’re looking to double revenues earned from transborder travel between Canada and the u.s. to $1.6 billion,’ Robertson says.

Later in the year, Air Canada signed a five-year marketing alliance with the Grizzlies and their new arena, General Motors Place.

The venue features an Air Canada Club Lounge, giving Air Canada a visible presence in Vancouver that will be favorable, as Pacific Rim business activity continues to grow.

(Robertson says Air Canada initially operated charter flights for the Raptors team members, but the Raptors pulled out of the arrangement earlier this month when Air Canada could not accommodate the team’s travelling requirement to bypass the terminals and board the planes directly.

(John Lashway, the Raptors director of communications, says it is not unusual for a team to fly with an airline other than its primary sponsor, and that all other Raptors personnel continue to fly with Air Canada.

(Both parties will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the season.)

IBM Canada’s partnership as official information technology and computer of the nba means providing technology for the nba.

But, more importantly, perhaps, is the opportunity for ibm to reach the younger, urban market the league is associated with, a demographic, says Jason Fiorotto, project co-ordinator, that ibm may not have been perceived to target in the past.

Canadian consumers also benefit.

For example, Shoppers Drug Mart stores in Toronto and Vancouver sell game tickets, hyped as Slam Seats, for an affordable $12.99.

As well, Kellogg Canada, during the last quarter of 1995, commemorated the first regular season of the Raptors and Grizzlies with limited edition packages of its basketball-shaped Corn Pops featuring the cereal in team colors – Raptors purple and red; Grizzlies green and red.

And, in a promotion under way with the Raptors, Nestle Canada’s Confectionery Division is using its relationship with the team to invite more than 450 Ontario high schools to compete in collecting the most Nestle chocolate bar wrappers per student.

Says Carole Comery, Nestle confectionery brand manager:

‘Since teens are already good consumers of chocolate bars, we feel this is a good way to support basketball at the high school level and reward students for their support by offering them Raptors tickets, a basketball clinic with a Raptors assistant coach and school basketball uniforms.’