picture via NBA.com
Source: PUMA.com | Forever Faster.
Digital chunks, NBA viewership, influencers, Youth culture and sneaker culture… all of these things crash together but aren’t discussed in detail by those attempting to understand how to create an environment where basketball sneakers become treasured gems again. All of these things matter to marketing teams, but aren’t presented in a way where brands can recapture the heyday of the explosion that led to the billion dollar boom in sneaker sales. What am I saying here?
Sneaker brands control the ability for basketball shoes to once again become coveted. The solution is inside of their financial coffers for advertisement and it’s not just a big check that has to be cut, it’s the slow, consistent building of content around both products and athletes that will win.
Derrick Jones Jr. won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in a pair of Puma. Will this help the basketball division at Puma sell more shoes? No. Puma is making the mistake that all brands not named Nike are making. Let me backtrack a bit here:
Puma is signing a ton of NBA players, so has Nike, adidas, and even New Balance is signing a few players now. This is par, but it isn’t needed because to be honest, Nike has all of the biggest names, except for Kawhi. The problem here is simple. No other brand gets coverage in sneaker circles. A quick glance at the top sneaker blogs delivers a very uncomfortable reality for sports brands and basketball:
Nicekicks.com has the benefit of their main writer also doubling as the host of ESPN’s Sneaker Center giving them more insight into sneaker deals and information than any other sneaker site. This doesn’t matter because above the fold and on the scroll of the site (it has a social styled scroll that loads more articles as you scroll). With three posts per line and thirteen rows there are 26 Nike posts out of 35-39 posts.
A day after All Star weekend Solecollector.com in ten rows scrolled with three articles a row (30 posts) has 10 posts dedicated to the NBA and other topics, which leaves 20 total posts 15 of which are dedicated to Nike.
Sneakerbardetroit.com has a single post on each row. On 30 rows 28 of the articles lead with Nike.
Puma’s homepage leads with a dope collab between Puma and Public Enemy, but after Derrick Jones Jr. won the slam dunk contest they didn’t even have a team ready to update the site with a lead for the Puma Clyde Hardwood (worn by DJJ in his win):
Here is the harsh reality though, even if they did update their homepage with pictures of DJJ and even if all of their social media celebrated the victory, no one knows who Derrick Jones Jr. is. The shoe is a beautifully designed sneaker and in the South Beach colors donned by DJJ in the contest the shoe stood out, but on the resale side of things, unlike Blake Griffin’s 2011 Shattered Backboard Hyperdunk ( a true basketball sneaker) the Puma Clyde hasn’t popped in resale value and it won’t. That Hyperdunk which didn’t have any casual features at all, sold for 250 a pair in resale. Nike didn’t own the NBA contract at the time, but prior to Blake wearing that shoe Nike had created a promotional blitz featuring their Hyperdunk and the fact that Blake was wearing the shoe was critical; we knew Blake.
Blake was a star. In this slam dunk contest DJ Khalid didn’t even know how to pronounce Pat Connaughton’s last name and a 34 year old Dwight Howard broke out an old display. Both of those guys found themselves outside of primetime and it came down to one of the best dunkers in the NBA Aaron Gordon, who wore 361 (you’ve probably never heard of those), and DJJ who Puma did absolutely no build up to the dunk contest for… and that’s the thing.
Digital chunks, NBA viewership, influencers, Youth culture and sneaker culture
Sneaker Brands and retailers have the ability to leverage their extensive reach to give basketball shoes a better platform. Will it help? Probably not considering the majority of shoes sold arrive at a price under 100 dollars and basketball shoes are inherently expensive and rising in cost each year. There are too many options available that look great and ring up at a fraction of the cost. But, those more expensive basketball sneakers garner more coverage on sneaker blogs and in social media marketing. Even when the brand doesn’t create content, the blogs and influencers can drive interest in hoops sneakers. The problem is Nike dominates those channels, leaving a brand like Puma in the awkward position of reentering the U.S. market in a manner that stretches the company thin.
Puma uses entertainment influencers like Selena Gomez and Adriana Lima who sell shoes under 100 and hit a critical target with women. Then Puma uses athletes in basketball to possibly create a trickle down marketing policy for shoes that cost 120 dollars and up. Because Puma has so much momentum in the international market, “Footwear sales grew for the ninth quarter in a row and were up 16.4% currency adjusted to € 458.8 million, with success coming from the Ignite franchise as well as Fierce and Fenty products within the Running, Training and Sportstyle categories,” the brand knows their bread and butter lies with women and they also realize their presence in international soccer and track and field is stronger than anything they are doing in the U.S. This doesn’t mean Puma is wrong about basketball.
A quick visit to Puma’s social channels sees the celebration of Mondo (track and field) and a focus on fashion over sport. Puma is utilizing basketball as a marketing tool because the opportunity for a discussion with male shoppers exists there, but they are doing so with an effort that relies on the NBA athletes perceived inherent interest. What I mean by this is Puma is leaving the work to an athlete who may have considerable followers, but they don’t have the ability to convert fans into the sales funnel. I discuss this in the article link below.
The Puma Future Rider, Collabs with Brands vs Influencers and Big Sean Wears Jordan Brand
This form of marketing overlooks the fact that the NBA is now a digital chunk form of viewership. That demographic Puma is looking to reach with basketball doesn’t watch NBA All-Star Weekend. They may watch it the next day in digital chunks, but the goal of catching youth culture via NBA athletes is flawed. While the NBA has the youngest viewership of sports fans in the U.S., the age of the people watching is still around 42 years old. This is because the viewership isn’t including digital chunks.
Which leads me to my point, Derrick Jones Jr. is an unknown. Puma does have other athletes on their basketball roster, but that roster can’t be found anywhere. Puma isn’t controlling their narrative around their basketball roster. They have all of the pieces to create a compelling story, and last night’s dunk contest opens the door wide. The question is will they walk through and give the digital chunkers a reason to rock with the Cat?
Sources:
https://adage.com/article/media/nba-ratings/311486
