Measure Attention, Not Views, Says NBA's VP of Paid and CRM

In response to a year of closed stadiums, the sports industry had to turn its digital transformation dial to MAX and discover ways to bring the sport to its fans. Larisa Johnson, vice president of paid and CRM media at the National Basketball Association, shares how the NBA took an omnichannel approach to their "That's Game" brand campaign, customizing digital content, interactive social, and even an influencer house. Discover how Larisa and the NBA team kept the ball rolling, how marketers must keep with the evolution of measurement, and why marketing should be in lockstep with many other business functions in an organization. ADWEEK: How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy aha-moments along the way? I didn’t shy away from roles or companies that had reputations of being hard jobs. Some of my hardest jobs were those where I learned the most and felt motivated to excel beyond expectations. My biggest “aha-moment” was after I left the agency side and started working for tech companies. I realized I had a builder mentality. I enjoyed coming in and building a foundation from scratch—getting the right infrastructure and team in place, putting together marketing investment cases and working to get the first external company statement out to the world. It’s an exciting and fulfilling experience. What's the most innovative thing you recently worked on? Going into this postseason, the NBA launched the “That’s Game” brand campaign. It involved customization across all channels, from custom digital content to interactive social and an influencer house, to OOH pulling in live feeds of social conversation. It really drove engagement with not only NBA fans but widened the aperture and allowed us to reach more general sports fans as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It4nw4v95Yk What new or up-and-coming innovation(s) are you most excited about and how do you think it will change the future of marketing? Measurement doesn’t get a lot of credit for innovation, but it is evolving quickly in real-time. I’ve been really interested in how you can now measure “attention” to an ad unit, a much more valuable version of viewability, which was the hottest metric when it became big over five years ago. Attention provides a more rigorously measured metric to optimize against since a lot of standard front-end metrics (eg. CTR, ER) can be skewed by other irrelevant factors. It also shows the promise of having a correlation to deeper business metrics, which are not usually available until post-campaign. If we’re able to optimize to those deeper outcomes in real-time, that’s a game-changer. What’s one piece of work from your career that you’re the proudest of? I loved the Round Up & Donate campaign we did at Lyft because—on top of being a custom campaign with custom content and branded events (including an all-pink arcade!)—it promoted all the charities Lyft was partnering with that riders could donate to [as well], which felt personally rewarding. Was there ever a time where you questioned your career path? How did you handle that? Constantly and I still am! I think it’s good to consistently check in with yourself and make sure you feel fulfilled with what you’re doing. New challenges and expanding my scope beyond traditional media are always appealing to me and I’m always thinking of what else I can be learning or trying to expand my overall marketing and growth expertise. What is one skill that you think is currently underdeveloped in Marketing? Understanding growth and product organizations. A lot of times they function in very different silos but, to market a company to current and future consumers, marketing needs to deeply comprehend the product roadmap and user flow. And while marketing often lives closer to the top of the funnel, onboarding and re-engagement should happen as seamless next steps, which you can’t achieve without being in lockstep with your growth counterparts. How do you pick and develop the talent on your team? I look for people with new and unique approaches. If they don’t come from a similar company like mine, that’s almost more exciting because I know they’ll bring new thoughts to the table. Mentorship is important to me; I tend to trust my team to run with their own projects and see me as more of a consultant and a fresh pair of eyes. I think ownership is important for growth. https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1417739833519259657 What's a way that you predict marketing will change as more people begin traveling/going out again? I’m hoping to see some interesting OOH stunts, which is a medium I have a soft spot for that no one’s been doing much in since most of the public stayed at home. As travel upticks, I bet companies will continue to try to leverage transportation spaces and experiences in new ways as well. What’s the first post to come to mind when you hear “best-in-class social”? REI’s #OptOutside. It’s a couple of years old now but every year I look forward to it, as it stands out from all the Black Friday sales messaging we get inundated with and it’s interesting to see how they make tweaks every year to keep the idea fresh. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Don’t be afraid to grab a seat at the table, no matter who walks in. You're also part of the Adweek Executive Mentorship Program. What has been the biggest takeaway from your time with your mentor? Kristin Harrer, Global CMO of Vans, has really helped me take a closer look at how I frame things, both in working with executive leadership on projects and in thinking about my own career path. At the end of the day, it’s all about the narrative you shape around the work you’re doing and why. What one question would you ask the marketing community and why? How do you think about and define “mid-funnel” marketing? For example, what success have you seen in linking brand efforts to bottom-funnel results? Brands Must Figure out Their Audio Identity, Says PepsiCo’s Gabe Alonso

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Don't Measure Views: Check Attention Instead, Advises NBA's VP of Paid and CRM

Larisa Johnson discusses the omnichannel customization of the NBA's 'That's Game' campaign

Julian Gamboa

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Julian Gamboa