How the San Antonio Spurs won over French fans, one post at a time

In January 2025, the San Antonio Spurs came to Paris. Most franchises treat an international game as a one-off. The Spurs treated it as a starting point. Since then, Samba Digital has helped the franchise turn a week in the French capital into a year-round relationship with French basketball fans.

Starting from zero, fast

The challenge at launch was simple to state and hard to solve: the Spurs’ French-language accounts were brand new, and nobody knew they existed. We had to make them known to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
Our answer mixed three ingredients: creativity, influence and trends. We also joined forces with players French fans already follow, including beIN Sports and Trashtalk, to co-create content and borrow their reach.
In the first two months alone, that approach delivered 119 posts, 110 videos, 6.1M views and more than 15,000 new followers.

From launch to a full season of localized content

Through the 2025–26 season, Samba Digital produced content for and managed the Spurs’ dedicated French accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. The goal was no longer awareness. It was habit: giving French fans a reason to follow the Spurs every week, in their own language and with their own cultural references.

The season numbers speak for themselves:
• 999 posts on Instagram
• 272 videos on TikTok
• 58M impressions
• +207K new followers

Bringing the franchise to the streets of Paris

A digital community gets stronger when it meets in real life. We covered every major Spurs moment in France:
• October 2025 – Ledger partnership. The Spurs’ new jersey partner hosted an event at its Paris headquarters with NBA legend Bruce Bowen. We followed him all day and produced a 360° aftermovie, cross-posted by the Spurs’ global account, the French account and Ledger.
• February 2026 – Spurs Paris Week. Five days of story coverage across youth training sessions in Le Chesnay and Nanterre with Spurs Academy coaches, the opening of the Paris Pop Shop and a watch party at Ledger’s headquarters. We added a lifestyle format around Paris with Ian Mahinmi.
• April 2026 – Playoff watch party. For the Spurs’ return to the playoffs, another watch party was running the same night at the Grand Rex. Instead of competing, we collaborated: cross-posted stories brought both crowds together, with live content, 20+ story slides and photos delivered to the Spurs PR team.

What other franchises can learn

The Spurs’ French playbook rests on three ideas. Launch with partners who already own the audience. Localize everything, not just the language. And connect online content to real-life moments fans can attend.
For any league or club looking to grow in a new market, that is the difference between visiting a country and belonging to it.
Want to build your fanbase in France? Talk to Samba Digital.