NBA drops Chinese insert to salute Yao, Wang and Bateer
(mickey@dmnews.com)
Updated: 2003-10-29 11:43

The National Basketball Association drops its first Chinese-language print supplement Oct. 31 to highlight the achievements of three Chinese players.

Created by ad agency Kang & Lee, New York, the 12-page glossy insert will run in newsstand editions of The World Journal and Singtao Daily newspapers. These Chinese-language publications are most popular in New York, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and New Jersey.

"Last season more than 15 NBA teams incorporated Asian-American marketing efforts into their overall marketing plans," NBA international senior vice president Andrew Messick said in a statement.

"With the emergence and growing popularity of Asian players and the ever-changing demographics of the U.S., the NBA's marketing efforts to reach the Asian-American community will grow," he said.

The United States has more than 2.4 million Chinese residents, with a median household income of $51,444. The NBA supplement will reach 70 percent of that population.

The insert salutes Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, Mengke Bateer of the Toronto Raptors and Wang Zhizhi of the Los Angeles Clippers. Content also includes information on the NBA's rising popularity in China, a peek at the NBA China Games 2004 between the Rockets and Sacramento Kings in Beijing and Shanghai, news and the league's 2003-04 TV schedule.

Basketball is increasingly attracting a wider fan base in China. In the 2002-03 season, 14 broadcasters televised NBA games and programs in China, with NBA programming reaching 314 million households. The league recently debuted the site at www.nba.com/china in Chinese.

The NBA plans another Chinese-language print supplement for release in February prior to the weeklong festivities of NBA All-Star 2004 in Los Angeles.