NBA Digital Disciple Series: San Antonio Spurs, Western Conference Digital Marketing Champs

The gauntlet has been thrown down at me. Here I am, expected to weigh in with my take at the Western Conference. I need to determine who would win if it wasn't determined by the play on the court but rather by the play in the digital arena.

That's much easier said than done when you're looking at 15 squads that each excel in a different way. In basketball terms, they all have their go to move and I'm going to look at which one is the strongest.

As Peter Robert Casey stated extremely well yesterday (here), this isn't easy. It's not science, it's art and a little bit of instinct.

What can we all learn from the Spurs marketing strategy? I can boil it down into one sentence: The Fan is at the heart of everything.

Spirit in Pictures

Fans love their team. And the Spurs centered a lot of their digital marketing efforts on that fact: to help them celebrate that love. Many teams started with this insight, but none extended it as consistently as I saw down in Southern Texas. Witness these examples:

The Spurs asked fans to share why they were the most passionate fans, in the form of a photo. Side note: scary. If you don't believe they take hoops seriously, you need to click in here and check out this photo gallery. The winners were posted on the site. Amazing stuff here.

Spirit in Words

As I've covered previously, the Spurs do a great job on Twitter, linked here. But if you look deeply into what they do, you'll see that they are asking fans to not just follow them on Twitter, but to share a love for the team via Twitter. Check the post below:

It is authentic, emotional, spontaneous (you only have 10 minutes), and easy to enter. And fans celebrate the team and their passion. Oh, and the winners get elevated onto the Spurs site, shown below.

Spirit via a Network of peers

The Spurs site features a navigation titled "Spurs on Twitter". Clicking in takes you not just to the Spurs official page but to a Universe of Peers you can interact with, follow, and share Spurs love with. Check it out below (and here). Gulp.

Yes, you are taken to all 27 Spurs Twitter sites, including athletes, dancers, mascots, and front office employees. If you love the Spurs, this makes it very easy to find anyone and everyone affiliated with the squad. And, as I covered earlier, you want to check often as you never know when your passion can win you game tickets.

They ask for Feedback

Here's the link, the image is below. When I saw the header, I was intrigued. Could that be a chance to tell the team how it did? Clicking in, I saw that this was not just a space to give feedback on your experience at a game but actually a forum to submit ideas. (And if you see the headline, it's pretty clear which of the two is the most important topic to take away)...

What's beautiful about this is that it shows a relationship to fans that are really unlike any other I came across. The Spurs make themselves vulnerable. They ask what you want. And that's the best chance they have of evolving to becoming a responsive organization.

There's Little Barriers to Entry

This may have been what sealed the deal for the Spurs in my eyes. The things that they did weren't extremely fancy. They didn't take a huge investment in resources. It just takes an open mind and a willingness to listen. And these are things that many of us can take and reinterpret in our worlds.

So there you have it. The Spurs win the Western Conference Digital Title. Tune in tomorrow, both here and at Peter Robert Casey's site (here). We'll take a look at that title matchup, from two different points of view. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter. I'm @pawlow34. And he's @peter_r_casey.

Tune in tomorrow as we bring this home!