Emirates drives 19M views and lifts brand consideration via NBA on Prime Video and Wondery

Goals

Following their announcement as both the Official Global Airline Partner of the NBA and the inaugural title partner of the Emirates NBA Cup, Emirates had a unique opportunity to show up within basketball culture with both authenticity and scale. Rather than approaching this as a traditional sponsorship, the brand set out to embed themselves into the moments fans already care about—connecting their premium, global identity with the energy and significance of the NBA.

With a highly engaged and culturally influential audience, particularly in the U.S., the objective was to combine high-quality reach with meaningful engagement. Emirates aimed to strengthen key brand perceptions—improving consideration, favorability, and booking intent, especially among audiences not yet flying with the airline—while reinforcing their modern, forward-looking brand persona. In parallel, the campaign sought to demonstrate how a connected, multi-touch execution across Amazon’s touchpoints could bring together scale and storytelling to create a more lasting, native, and differentiated brand experience.

Approach

Bringing this to life, Emirates activated a full-court press strategy across Amazon, combining two complementary environments: live NBA games on Prime Video and Wondery’s Mind the Game podcast.

At scale, NBA ad breaks and in-game branded integrations on Prime Video placed Emirates directly within one of the most premium and high-attention live sports environments. These moments allowed the brand to show up consistently during the biggest games of the season, reinforcing their presence at the heart of basketball culture. Through repeated exposure, Emirates built strong visibility and association with the sport—ensuring the brand remained top-of-mind within a setting that naturally reflects performance, excellence, and global appeal.

Alongside this, Emirates introduced a more intimate and immersive layer through Mind the Game on Wondery, hosted by two of the game's greatest legends, LeBron James and Steve Nash. Through host-read integrations, the brand moved beyond traditional ad formats and became part of the content itself. This allowed Emirates to engage audiences in a more meaningful way, connecting the brand to basketball culture through storytelling rather than interruption. The environment reinforced the brand's premium positioning and encouraged a stronger connection with listeners.

Together, these two environments worked in sync. Prime Video delivered reach, frequency, and cultural relevance at scale, while Wondery added depth and credibility through personal endorsement. Fans encountered Emirates during the biggest moments of the season, then heard the brand championed by voices they trust, reinforcing perception at every touchpoint.

Importantly, the entire strategy was grounded in authenticity. As the Official Airline of the NBA and sponsor of the Emirates NBA Cup, the brand wasn’t simply appearing around the sport, they were part of it. That credibility carried through every touchpoint, ensuring the campaign felt cohesive, relevant, and true to both the NBA and Emirates' global identity.

Results

The campaign delivered both scale and meaningful impact, demonstrating the strength of a connected, multi-touch approach across Amazon.

Through the NBA on Prime Video, Emirates' campaign reached 19.6 million viewers across the season,¹ placing the brand consistently within the biggest games of the year, including the Black Friday game and throughout the Emirates NBA Cup.

Beyond reach, this visibility on Prime Video translated into strong shifts in perception, particularly among airline flyers who were not existing Emirates customers. The brand saw a +7.2 point increase in being perceived as setting the standard for quality in travel,² alongside a +9.9 point uplift in the brand being perceived as modern and forward-looking,³ contributing to a +6.6 point rise in brand consideration.⁴

Wondery’s Mind the Game added a complementary layer of impact, deepening engagement and influencing intent. The campaign delivered uplifts across key brand metrics, including +9 points in aided awareness,⁵ +7 points in affinity,⁶ and +6 points in booking consideration,⁷ as well as a +9 point increase in purchase intent.⁸ The storytelling environment also proved highly effective in shaping perception, with 67% of exposed audiences reporting that the integrations helped Emirates stand out from other airlines and 58% finding the brand more inspiring, premium, or appealing.⁹

By linking high-impact visibility with deeper, more immersive engagement, Emirates was able to move audiences from awareness to intent while reinforcing their position as a premium, modern global airline, deeply embedded in the culture of the game. These results were independently measured through third-party brand lift studies conducted by Dynata and Nielsen, ensuring that the changes observed reflect statistically reliable shifts in audience perception rather than directional trends.

Sources

¹ Amazon Internal data, US, 2025

^2-9 Dynata Brand Lift Study, US, 2025