In their first season back in basketball New Balance scored with the NBA Finals MVP and celebrated Kawhi Leonard’s second ring win with a responsive, post-game campaign.
Within hours of Kawhi Leonard leading the Toronto Raptors to their first ever NBA title, New Balance leveraged its endorser alliance with a celebratory, responsive campaign reworking its previous Kawhi ‘Kawhi. NB Hoops. We Got Now’ with ‘Rings Speak Louder Than Words’,
Rings Speak Louder Than Words.@newbalance #WeGotNow pic.twitter.com/osRUr7UPUG
— New Balance Basketball (@nbhoops) June 14, 2019
and also its ‘Board Man Gets Paid’ work into ‘Board Man Gets Titles’.
@nbhoops pic.twitter.com/aMPmlZLBQZ
— New Balance (@newbalance) June 14, 2019
The low latency creative – which also rewrites other copy such as ‘Made For The Ones Who Play By/Rewrite The Rules’ – rolled out across New Balance’s digital and social channels within minutes of the Raptors victory.
The sportswear brand’s low latency title celebration creative followed on from its February debut athlete ambassador work which was spearheaded by a hero spot called ‘We Got Now: Kawhi Leonard’ with the copy line “Game speaks for itself. Kawhi Leonard. NB Hoops. We got now.”
Kawhi. NB Hoops. We Got Now.
(oh yeah, sneaker debut at #NBAAllStar) pic.twitter.com/UGRbLKjPgC
— New Balance Basketball (@nbhoops) February 14, 2019
Comment:
When Kawhi Leonard (and Darius Bazley) signed up with New Balance back in November 2018, there was some surprise across the hoops sneaker sector – not least because the Boston-based brand hadn’t made a basketball sneaker since its James Worthy days of the 1980s.
The brand is adopting a slightly different approach to basketball since it re-entered the space.
The brand never planned to even try and compete with Nike/Jordan by signing up 100s of hoops stars.
It understands that the basketball market is viscously competitive, so chose to identify and work personally and authentically with a small group of athletes adopting a quality-driven approach to its on-court shoes.
“The goal was not only long-term sustainability and steady growth, but to do this in a way that was unique and true to New Balance,” said Patrick Cassidy, director of consumer marketing for New Balance.
“We have seen the rise and fall of lots of brands trying to do basketball the same way. We wanted to build a plan true and unique to us.”
“It was about finding the absolutely right athletes,” Cassidy added.
“We were not just going to go out and find athletes to get shoes on their feet. That was a recipe for disaster, specifically for how we want to do it. Our goal was to go out and find a specific type of athlete to partner with, ones who wants to do things differently and not follow the same blueprint as their peers.”
Leonard and Bazley both present distinctive approaches to basketball and hoops life and through these partnerships New Balance is showcasing its own independent approach to marketing and to its business.
After all, as a privately owned, independent company, it doesn’t plan to not flood the market and shift huge shoe volumes right away, but rather adopt a more carefully curated, brand-related strategy.
“There is no part of our long-term strategy to be the biggest brand in basketball,” Cassidy explained last year.
“We don’t need it. We want to signify we are different. We don’t want to be the biggest, we want to be the best.”
Well, it certainly seems to have been an inspired choice.
The Raptors victory and Kawhi’s elevated status looks set to accelerate the strategy for New Balance’s recently revived basketball apparel business and the brand has been leveraging the play-offs hard with player-fronted, game-related apparel and basketball shoe ads across its channels.
Tomorrow. 11 am et@newbalance #NBHoops pic.twitter.com/pBT1I5pGcg
— New Balance Basketball (@nbhoops) June 6, 2019
ALL EYES ON KAWHI.
Kawhi Leonard warming up in a black and gold colorway of the New Balance OMN1S for Game 2 of the NBA Finals. pic.twitter.com/CXz99CvYWR
— Yahoo Sports Canada (@YahooCASports) June 2, 2019
.@KawhiLeonard’s New Balance OMN1S for Game 4.
@LachlanTC pic.twitter.com/IDK5vnCMCc— SoleCollector.com (@SoleCollector) June 8, 2019
Bucket. Bucket.@newbalance #NBHoops pic.twitter.com/DpuhIrxCTg
— New Balance Basketball (@nbhoops) June 8, 2019
Links:
New Balance
https://www.newbalance.com/basketball
https://www.facebook.com/NewBalanceUK/?brand_redir=14299383245
https://twitter.com/NewBalance
http://pinterest.com/newbalance/
https://www.youtube.com/user/newbalance
https://instagram.com/newbalance
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