The auditing strategy for paid and organic social followed five stages: data harvesting, segmentation, scoring, benchmarking and recommendations.

We measured Facebook, Instagram and Twitter performance for each region based on specific criteria such as:

• engagement
• creative
• planning
• formats
• SEO (YouTube only)
• optimisation (YouTube only)

Regional scores were benchmarked against other NBA regions and sports, and we presented strategic growth recommendations for these emerging markets.

NBA LATAM’s YouTube organic social, for example, needed to be stronger. We aimed to take the channel to 80%-90% optimal, focusing on key attributes such as content distribution strategy, increased frequency of posting and format experimentation.

Our analysis also revealed a major over-reliance on in-season fixture periods to drive social performance.

We harvested previous-years data, split into pre-season, in-season, NBA play-offs/finals and off-season categories. We discovered the vast majority of reach, engagement and growth occurred during the season and play-offs. A compelling growth opportunity to explore out-of-season and pre-season content was identified to increase engagement rates and lift performance across the year.

NBA LATAM, for example, had only achieved a 4.8% market penetration on Facebook and Instagram. Data showed 77 million users were interested in basketball in LATAM, yet only 3.7 million follow the NBA LATAM social pages. Similar growth opportunities existed across Mexico and Brazil.

WePlay’s social audit and growth strategy for the NBA’s key emerging markets was presented back to stakeholders following the conclusion of the project.

Strategic recommendations were then delivered and deployed by the NBA’s local market agencies.