Wealthsimple Endorsement Deal With NBA Rookie Mikal Bridges Not Paid In Cash But In Investment Portfolio

As the 2018 NBA Draft was getting started, Wealthsimple leveraged interest in the event by promoting a new partnership with Mikal Bridges that sees the digital investment service pay the young g player not in cash but in the form of an investment portfolio.

His new $50,000 ETF portfolio is a long term investment which could be worth as much as $250,000 by the time the player hangs up his sneakers.

The tie-up was promoted across the brand’s digital and social channels in real-time immediately after Bridges was picked in the NBA Draft on 21 June.

Wealthsimple has partnered with NBA Rookie @Mikal_Bridges to create the first endorsement that pays an athlete with a long-term investment portfolio. https://t.co/3LxbRIKxCg

— Wealthsimple (@Wealthsimple) June 21, 2018

Congratulations to our partner @Mikal_Bridges. The @Suns invested exactly how we did: in a rookie who is smart, humble, and working hard to secure his legacy. pic.twitter.com/JmoDrOzleI

— Wealthsimple (@Wealthsimple) June 22, 2018

Plus, this fresh approach to the deal enabled the brand to tell a story about investment that tied in to the way teams invest in young NBA players when it comes to the draft.

Rookie Bridges was selected 10^th in the first round by the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers, but was then shipped straight to the Phoenix Suns in return for Zhaire Smith.

Comment:

It’s far from the first athlete deal the brand has penned in recent times,

Many professional athletes suffer problems with finances post retirement. I spoke to @Wealthsimple about the importance of looking beyond football early on to secure my families future. https://t.co/F2fyrJeG94

— Héctor Bellerín (@HectorBellerin) June 21, 2018

How much does the US pay when you win a silver medal? Chris Mazdzer — who won silver in luge in Pyeongchang — explains what it’s like to be an elite athlete in a sport that doesn’t hand out multimillion dollar contracts. — “The thing is, in this sport you’re not going to make a lot of money. I've always worked side jobs to have money for the basic pleasures of life. I was a fitness and trampoline instructor for a couple of years when I was younger. Then, when I made the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at 21 years old, I was a bartender at the Skwachays Lodge in Vancouver — I did banquets, I did weddings. I'd be working banquets as a bartender and people would be having some drinks and they find out I'm an Olympic athlete and the next thing you know, the bride and groom are getting photos with me behind the bar. I did well for myself, probably because I am personable and I put in really long hours. I wouldn’t work in the winter, obviously. But in the summer I could make a couple thousand dollars per month, which was enough to last me for the year and be able to pay for a vacation. I did that until I was 25. Then I medaled in my first World Cup. And once you medal in a World Cup, you do start to receive a little bit of money. I got a stipend of $500 a month. The idea is they don’t want you to work. They want you to be able to focus on your sport. So it wasn’t until I was 26 that I could concentrate on the sport full-time.” — Read more at Wealthsimple Magazine.

A post shared by Wealthsimple (@wealthsimple) on Mar 29, 2018 at 8:05am PDT

but it is one of the most inventive.

The last year or two has seen sports stars around the world – from hoops heroes of the NBA like LeBron James and Kevin Durant to soccer super stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo – publicly discuss and promote the success of their financial investments and how they are going about making the money that they have made on and off the court work for them in the long term and beyond the sport.

These types of creative partnerships are smart from both sides: a win-win as it were.

This is a new kind of pro player partnership payment.

Is the start of a change in the way athlete ambassadors approach partnership deals?

Is this a sign of things to come?

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