Bulls
The Bulls are unveiling a standalone Spanish language Instagram account today entitled @LosBulls, building on their pervasive social media platform that already has an international following of roughly 31.5M.
Having already launched a similar account in France two years ago called @LesChicagoBulls — as well as posting regularly on the NBA’s official sites in China — the Bulls will for the first time distribute live Spanish content on game nights that is produced in-house and overseen in Latin America by the marketing agency Sportfive.
Considering 12% of the Bulls’ overall 45M social media followers identify as Spanish-speaking — and because, according to YouGov, the team has almost 22M fluent Spanish fans throughout Spain, Latin America and the U.S. — the franchise suspects its new Latino Instagram channel will lead to expanded global sponsorships as the league continues to prioritize international team marketing plans.
Each NBA team, for instance, can obtain up to 10 global partners (in 2022, the number was only two) and it is believed that adding a maximum of international marketing sponsorships can help teams accrue as much as $50M in revenue to make up for lost RSN money — critical for the Bulls who are part of the fledgling Chicago Sports Network.
“The 90’s Bulls, such an iconic team, has really turned the Bulls into an iconic, global brand,” Luka Dukich, vice president of content for the Bulls, told SBJ. “And I think a couple of years ago [in France, prior to playing in the Paris Game], we decided we wanted to proactively and purposefully build a deeper connection with some of these international fans and not just expect them to kind of come to us. We wanted to go to them and speak in their language, talk in their culture and engage with them there. We wanted to make it something that lasts.”
After building a following of about 109,000 on France’s @LesChicagoBulls since 2022, the Spanish @LosBulls will attempt to produce considerably more live content — largely because the Chicago time zone is more comparable to Latin America, Dukich said. The Bulls’ in-house social media team will also lean on a former Bulls player such as Andrés Nocioni of Argentina and a current player such as Dominican Chris Duarte to relate to its Latin followers.
“It’s all bespoke, custom, culturally relevant content,” said Dukich, who said 70% of the team’s overall 45M social media followers are international. “We’re not just pressing ‘translate’ and posting the same stuff with just Spanish subtitles. … We have custom graphics. We’ll have custom video. We have a video team that covers every game in addition to what you’re seeing on the broadcast. Maybe they’re shooting just the bench for a game, and we show bench highlights and how players are interacting with each other. Maybe we’re focusing on a specific player, Chris Duarte. Maybe that audience is really interested in his game.”
In concert with the activation, the Bulls are refurbishing basketball courts in Chicago’s Little Village in partnership with local nonprofit Beyond the Ball — to be completed during Hispanic Heritage Month. Through its employee resource group SOMOS, the team will also stage events for its Latiné staff members focused around food, art, volunteerism and culture. It will all be promoted on @LosBulls.
“One of the most-liked Bulls Instagram posts of all time is when we sent a jersey to Lionel Messi a few years ago before he came to the States to play,” Dukich said. “And he held up the Bulls jersey and was genuinely happy. And then I think he walked his dog wearing the jersey and posted a photo. We posted that, and I think that’s still one of the top five most engaged ones we’ve ever posted. So you’re going to see us share things like that, too. Soccer culture is big there, but soccer players also love the Bulls. So trying to find those points where the two intersect.”