Sometimes the best way to cut through the clutter is to be the trailblazer. No matter how small, being the “first” or “only” always gives you the leg up in the conversation, and in many ways helps be a thought started for others, especially as you integrate your “firsts” into a conversation.
Mediocrity sucks. We remember the undefeated and the winless, the first pick and the last, but those at .500, never really that much. Two examples of finding a way to cut through the clutter stood out from Monday’s Cynopsis Sport Briefing:
AG Health, a Florida-based innovator and pioneer of Endocannabinoid Nutrition (ECN), announced their official sponsorship of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL). The deal makes the NWHL the first National Professional Sports League to accept a sponsorship by a company in the hemp industry.
The NWHL keeps pushing their narrative of excitement and growth in a sport on the rise for girls (hockey) but still faces many mainstream audience obstacles. Being disruptive and finding brands that are looking to engage while keeping the family first atmosphere is a tough balance. They may have found one on Friday with a hemp sponsorship. Now it’s not Cannabis, which soon may become a bigger player in sports marketing in coming years as legalization grows (and it will soon be legal across Canada it looks like) but it remains a banned substance by teams. The challenge will be in finding the happy medium, really not that unlike gambling, where players cannot bet on their teams yet gambling apps (where legal) and poker are OK for marketing and signage, and where teams can take casino money in a growing number of sports where years ago it was forbidden. The NWHL finding a way to spin to health and wellness is great and it loses nothing of the “being first” play. A smart way to garner some exposure not just now, but in what will be a growing sports business conversation going forward.
The New York Red Bulls announced New Jersey-based Brisas Bakery & Restaurant as the club’s official empanada in what the team claims is the first such sponsorship of any pro sports team in the country.
Do you like empanadas? Do you know an empanada? Does it matter? No. Somehow, some way someone at the Red Bulls was sitting in a meeting and heard about a mundane new food deal and said…wait. A little research, and low and behold a second thought partnership became a story. Why? First. Only reason. How? Because someone LISTENED. Now is it major news? No. Did it get exposure, yes. More importantly doing little things like this shows partners you are willing to work to find ways to increase the scope of what they are doing with you, which in team sports, brings tremendous ROI. Nice job Red Bulls, have a little meat pie on us.
End of the day do either of these make a front page? No. But they are essential to good storytelling by finding ways to cut through the clutter. It also sends a great message of creativity that is sometimes lacking in partnership marketing, so both are more than worthy of the nod.
Keep em coming.
