The recent development of social media has made connecting with their favourite athletes a much easier prospect for fans. This helps to develop the social standing of these athletes, as the general public feels closer to them. The most powerful sports marketing promotions today utilise this fact, pairing their products or services with popular athletes in order to gain attention and entice potential customers. We've created a list of the most powerful sports marketing promotions to show you what we mean.
1. #DareToZlatan
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, aside from his talent on the field, is renowned for his bizarrely confident persona off it. Nike capitalised on this by creating a Zlatan-themed clothing line, and then conducting a Q&A session with the great/highly unusual man. This combined social media and sports stars in a highly effective campaign
2. UnderArmour - Rule Yourself
UnderArmour is renowned for finding potential sports stars in the early stages of their careers, sponsoring them, and watching the money roll in as they turn into the next Steph Curry. This campaign used Michael Phelps as leverage to demonstrate what happens if you work hard - and wear UnderArmour, of course.
Michael Phelps demonstrates the benefits of wearing UnderArmour
3. Virgin Media - #BeTheFastest
This campaign attempted to demonstrate just how fast Virgin Media WiFi was. To do this, they created a promotion using who else but Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. If such a rapid moving athlete is on their advertisements, surely their internet is pretty quick too, right?
4. Converse and Larry Johnson
Ex-NBA player Larry Johnson was known as the 'Grandmama'. Converse, realising a chance to make a humorous and memorable advertising campaign, dressed LJ up as a Grandmother, and sent him to some public courts to embarrass unsuspecting victims. The entertainment value of this promotion is enough to make it particularly powerful.
5. MasterCard: Peyton Manning
Everyone is familiar with the MasterCard: Priceless commercials, which list a bunch of seemingly important things and their price before ending with one 'priceless' situation. Peyton Manning gave it a sporting spin when he joined these commercials, ensuring its place on this list.
Peyton Manning shows his love for his team, and Mastercard
6. Powerade: Very Real Power
As a leading sports drink, Powerade often uses sports stars to advertise its products. This campaign has included Lebron James hitting long range shots, Michael Vick throwing enormous passes, amongst other things, to demonstrate the greatness prevalent within these sporting superstars. Of course, the underlying message is that if you drink Powerade, you too will be able to achieve these feats.
7. Gatorade: Be Like Mike
Like Powerade, Gatorade often uses sports stars to promote its drinks. This is perhaps the most memorable of all its campaigns. Soon after MJ won the 1991 championship with his Bulls, this promotion was launched. The timing was perfect, the tagline is perfect, and 'Be Like Mike' is still a memorable phrase more than a quarter of a century later. In fact, there's even a movie about it.