Kohli is at it with the record breaking again! At this rate, he might even surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s record. But what has got the country in a swing is the 110 Crore deal that Kohli signed with Puma last month. He is now the youngest sportsman from India to join the ‘100 Crore club’, which was not a club at all with just Sachin and Dhoni in it.
Let’s cut to the international scenario. Cristiano Ronaldo’s deal with Nike is $22 Million a year, whereas Messi has been signed up for $20 Million a year with Adidas. We’re all aware of the number and size of campaigns these brands run with them globally, creating a larger than life persona of the players, so much so that even the masses in non-footballing nations know Ronaldo and Messi.
So, a $2 Million deal is a win-win for both Puma and Virat Kohli. Given that Puma has six cricketing nations as prospective markets for launching Virat Kohli as a brand. Moreover, he is a well-known sportsman and celebrity in non-cricketing nations, thus expanding the target markets for Puma in this case. Sportsmen carry a lot of brand value, owing to their fans and sports enthusiasts being present everywhere, irrespective of social and economic classes.
Let’s take a look at a few of the countless things Puma could do with the Kohli brand association to take their brand and business to the next level in the coming years.
ENGAGING FANS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Brand associations with sportsmen and athletes, especially in case of sporty brands, sets up a perfect channel for brands to engage a larger, relevant audience on social media. Take Ronaldo’s $1 Billion-Nike deal for instance. According to Hookit, Ronaldo’s social media presence generated $474 Million in value for Nike through just 329 posts on various social media platforms. Out of his 1515 posts on social media, he used 21% of posts to promote Nike through a hashtag which generated about 444 Million interactions. His single post before the Euro 2016 finals brought in a whopping $5.8 Million in media value for Nike.
Puma could leverage Kohli’s active social media presence to achieve similar results. He has 34 Million likes on Facebook, 14 Million followers on Twitter and about 12 Million followers on Instagram. Some engaging ways could be for Kohli to run an exclusive fitness channel on social platforms in association with Puma. This channel can have both video and text content in the form of tips on how to stay fit. With this, Kohli can promote Puma’s products too.
Social media is a great place to run contests to engage with customers. There are more than ten major cricketing events in a year including IPL, ICC Champions Trophy, along with test and ODI series. These events present a great opportunity to talk to an engaged audience.
Puma can run cricketing quizzes and incentivize winners with rewards. Some rewards would be Kohli signed Puma merchandise or tickets to cricket matches or even bowl an over to Kohli during practice sessions. The options are endless! Engagements like these bring in crowd sourced content and exclusive positioning with the sport using Kohli as their brand ambassador. Imagine all the interactions – retweets, replies, comments on such activities. If Cristiano Ronaldo can generate $1.4 MN per post, in India, Kohli will rig up competitive numbers.
INCREASING FOOTFALL & SALES AT STORES
Kohli stands for speed, performance and consistency. Temple Run is a popular game in India in which a player needs speed and consistency to win. Imagine large gaming stations at Puma’s EBOs, where customers can play Temple Run and use Kohli’s digital avatar to earn points and win prizes on the spot. Puma’s new products can be plugged into the game, wherein if a player is able to level up, Kohli’s avatar gets to run in Puma’s latest running shoes and if the player completes a hard task, they are rewarded with the new pair. Kohli could tweet before cricketing tournament to ask his followers to step into their nearest Puma stores to enjoy this experience and try out latest Puma merchandise and win goodies.
RAMPING UP SALES ONLINE
Nike launched a mobile app called the ‘Air Jordan Keyboard’, which allows users to send cool basketball emojis to friends. But that’s not it. Every time Air Jordan launches a new pair of sneakers, an emoji for the new sneakers is updated on the app, generating conversations among a captive user base. For a sports brand to launch an emoji app seemed bizarre before this, but it makes sense! Although we don’t have the numbers on how it has directly impacted their sales, it’s a great example of how brands can use their associations to get creative with new promotion channels.
Puma could do something similar where they could launch their own fitness app with Kohli’s voice over, sending fitness tips through the app based on user’s performance. New products by Puma can be launched with a demo, making fitness freaks aware of the latest product and its functions which they can buy online. Promos, sales and contests can be advertised through the fitness app which would increase product awareness and sales. Educating an engaged captive base, especially during product launches or promos is a big win for brands and leads to higher conversions.
At BigCity, we help brands associate with other relevant brands, celebrities, events and intellectual property. We smoothen out this entire process by handling all aspects of a partnership (including legalities) in-house, that too perfectly within budget. Talk to our experts today so that we can help you hit it out of the park with your brand association.
But for now, let’s not forget Kohli with his insane cover drive!
