Kyle Lowry becoming a marketer’s dream
Raptor an ‘everyday man that works his tail off,’ will bring Sport Chek, Adidas together
If you rhymed off the intangibles that define Raptors all-star Kyle Lowry, words like “tenacity,” “hustle” and “toughness” would probably appear.
A year ago, “marketability” might not have made the list, but that’s changing one deal at a time.
Monday afternoon, Sport Chek announced a two-year endorsement contract with Lowry, placing the ninth-year pro at the forefront of the retailer’s basketball-centric “My North” ad campaign.
Lowry emerged as a team leader last season, signed a four-year, $48million contract over the summer, and blossomed into an all-star this year.
And his off-the-court portfolio has grown accordingly, with Sport Chek joining Adidas as Lowry’s highest profile sponsors.
But it’s still not clear whether the Sport Chek deal is evidence that Lowry has bona fide NBA-star marketing clout, or whether he’s just the all-star at the intersection of preexisting corporate partnerships. Sport Chek sponsors the Raptors and runs a retail store at MLSE-owned Maple Leaf Square, and in 2013 partnered with Adidas on an exclusive line of Olympic-themed apparel.
“It’s not about right place, right time. It all starts from who the athlete is,” says Brian Cooper, president of S&E Sponsorship group, which helped broker the deal. “Kyle is probably the most relatable of all the Raptors.
“He’s the everyday man that works his tail off, and speaks those values to both youth and that brand.”
George Brown College sports marketing professor Peter Widdis says the Lowry sponsorship embodies the kind of synergies that get sports marketers fired up. The Raptors’ We the North campaign inspired Sport Chek’s My North, and Adidas pitchman Lowry gets to bring those sponsorships together.
“You connect those dots and it’s the perfect marriage,” Widdis says. “You have Sport Chek activating a campaign in pure harmony with our strategy, and you have a player brand in Kyle that has Canadian relevance. It brings a nice face to the label.”
Though he’s Toronto’s lone all-star, Lowry might not be the team’s highest profile player. Last summer teammate DeMar DeRozan was selected to represent the USA in the Basketball World Cup, and has larger followings on Twitter (372,000) and Instagram (353,000) than does Lowry, who has 184,000 followers on Twitter and 150,000 more on Instagram.
But Lowry was still able to leverage his social-media presence to rally the fan support that got him voted into this weekend’s all-star game, receiving endorsements from celebs as diverse as Drake, Justin Bieber and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“The popularity that he has based off of Bieber and Drake, he has to run with all of that right now,” says Chicago-based sports marketing agent Quency Phillips, head of the Que Agency. “This is his time and he really needs to capitalize. He’s a really good player, but he’s riding this wave.”
That Lowry’s all-star fan support came mainly from Canada signals some important developments to marketing experts.
First, it highlights the sport’s ability to connect with a younger and more multicultural audience as Canada becomes more diverse. While hock- ey remains reliably popular here, Burlington-based sports marketing consultant Keith McIntyre says brands seeking sports partnerships might start diverting sponsorship dollars toward basketball.
Second, it shows that playing in Canada doesn’t necessarily make a player less visible — and hence less marketable.
Playing on a big-market U.S.-based team would expose Lowry to bigger TV audiences more often but would shut him out of the national marketing deals reserved for megastars like LeBron James.
But playing for Canada’s only NBA team gives him access to a coast-tocoast market.
“As a result there are more eyeballs following (Lowry) and that can translate into bigger sales of licensed merchandise,” says McIntyre, president of the KMAC Group. “The attention is definitely focused on him.”
What happens next for Lowry’s personal brand?
Widdis says he can safeguard his marketability in Canada with another strong season and an even stronger commitment to the city.
“He’s a real adopted basketball citizen to Canada and not just another player passing through,” Widdis says.
“He has a real chance to have an association with the Raptors that can extend beyond the life of his contract.”