Each Monday, we will share some great activation practices throughout the sports and entertainment landscape. This blog will serve as a space to highlight innovative ideas and campaigns. Want to have your idea or campaign featured? Send us a note on Twitter at @Navigate_Res. 

Nike Rise: World’s 1st Tech-Enhanced, Interactive LED Court 
Nike has created the world’s first interactive LED basketball court as part of its RISE project in China. The court, named House of Mamba, was built for Kobe Bryant in order for him to teach young players his moves. Equipped with motion-tracking sensors and LED visualization the court has the ability to track different moves for the players to follow, as well as create drills based on Bryant’s training program, and display real-time performance statistics.
This could be a major opportunity for sponsorship activation with the ability to display logos on court and have ‘branded sessions’ of sort that happen on the court during Bryant’s time with the players. 

https://youtu.be/u2YhDQtncK8

This interactive basketball court is the first of its kind, but it might confuse people with the technology that’s being used to project 3D videos onto courts. We’ve been seeing this around the NBA a lot recently, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings. 

Philadelphia Eagles: Behind the Scenes Daily with Snapchat 
The Philadelphia Eagles are among some of the professional sports teams who are using the social media tool, Snapchat, in order to attract a younger crowd as well as engage with their fans. The Eagles have been using Snapchat for about a year now, to provide fans with a behind the scenes look into the team, including game-day footage, pre-game rituals, as well as other activities the team and players participate in. 

Other teams, including Sporting Kansas City, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Bulls, among others have accounts as well as the five professional sport leagues. 

 Here’s the breakdown of the number of teams in each of those leagues: 
• NHL: 15      •NFL: 10      • MLB: 13       • NBA: 18    • MLS: 6 
Snapchat gives properties a chance to tie in key sponsors to show athletes using products (i.e. Gatorade, Beats, etc.) not just endorsing them on TV. Using Snapchat has its advantages over other social media channels because it allows teams to connect to fans in ways that haven’t been done before.