Marketing In The News: Cera Ve and NBA Promo Deal?

 October 9th

MARKETING IN THE NEWS: Inside Cerva’s social-first partnership with the nba 

 My initial interest in this article comes from my love for basketball and my interest in self care. They are both such opposites to me and made me wonder, what is a skin care company doing a partnership with the NBA for? The NBA and CeraVe are pretty different between one another, which is a big reason why the article caught my eye. They do have something in common when it comes to their audiences, they are both very diverse and range from many different ethnicities, ages, and financial backgrounds. 

CervaVe is now officially the skincare and hair care partner of the NBA (As of October 6th). This means that CeraVe will be implemented into the 2k video game, within the actual NBA games, and in the NBA tournaments such as the Emirates NBA Cup or even the actual NBA Finals. While they may seem to have different audiences/target audiences, they actually cater to very similar people, the huge crossover between culture, fashion, sports, music, and all around lifestyle is actually very fitting for one another. This partnership allows CeraVe to market to instead of a national audience, a global audience, considering the reach that the NBA has, which greatly helps their overall reach and marketing ability and allows them to market to overseas consumers. MARKETINGDIVE, “The partnership with the NBA enables the brand to show up in unexpected places while maintaining its science-backed roots.” The claim further shows they’re confidence in this deal and it will most definitely make an impact on CeraVe’s future demographics. This deal also portrays CeraVe as instead of a clinical health/skin care brand, it portrays them as a lifestyle brand, which will ultimately help them branch into a space that is mostly considered “non-beauty”. This deal will pave the way for future self care brands that want to get into an untouched space when it comes to self/skin care, considering how really first of its kind it actually is. There is major long-term potential for CeraVe in this pace as well, with the immense reach that the NBA has on the impressionable youth it allows CeraVe to reach them at a whole new level. Especially considering the influence that sports has on the youth (especially young men) it is a remarkable marketing move that CeraVe made.

Another major point within the articles attempt to implement themselves into the video game NBA 2K is a phenomenal idea and it allows them to reach teenagers across the globe. CeraVe exposing themselves to a mostly young men audience is exactly what they want when it comes to putting themselves online into the video game scene. Their online presence is most known, they will have physical implementation into the Emirates NBA Cup, which is an in season tournament that has a lot of eyes and will allow CeraVe to show themselves in a high emotion and very static atmosphere. The article does not particularly say that they will be in any other events but it is very likely that you will see them season-round, play-offs, and Finals. 

A final major point that is very prominent within the article is their social-first marketing approach, which is them leveraging meme accounts such as @NBACentel to create quick and fast engagement and a introduction to their brand. In this strategy they do not dump a bunch of money into the first steps, they use earned media and they do it in remarkable fashion with using an unserious meme account that may not even look like advertisement. A downfall that they may see and that could be a risk is over memification, it could lead to them not being taken very seriously and could water down their clinical authority. While keeping credibility and not going over the edge, they will 100% have staying power within the space. 

The value proposition of CeraVe in this particular case for the NBA is the expansion from beauty watchers/consumers to athletes and sports fans alike. The perspective that can be perceived from an NBA audience can be seen as an aftercare and recovery instead of a more skin care and beauty standpoint. The value proposition from the NBA is particularly interesting to me, since the NBA already has the viewer ship they don’t need to really promote themselves as much as actual brands that have to mostly buy attention from the consumer. The NBA’s value proposition with CeraVe is adding another big brand to their already well diversified sponsor lineup, Gatorade, Nike, and State Farm are definitely different when it comes to being compared to CeraVe. The NBA’s social-first marketing strategy allows CeraVe a different avenue of advertising, instead of their usual forced ad marketing. 

The major marketing relevance that is predominantly shown within the article is their social-first opportunity ground breaking deal. “With a social-first teaser phase that’s inline with its other culture-hacking marketing efforts.” The social-first marketing strategy is an amazing tactic that allows brands to get in front of more eyes even quicker, cheaper, faster , and better than almost anything before. A great example of a social-first approach is the “Micheal CeraVe” Super Bowl marketing campaign. It all originally started on Twitter/X and Instagram. This strategy has been used by many other brands, the biggest gain from this marketing strategy is most definitely the cost of advertising vs traditional tv/radio advertising. It allows more ads, more flexibility, more room for failure because they don’t spend millions on one social media post, they spend more money in time vs actual money itself. 

There is a very major challenge that CeraVe need to overcome when it comes to their huge deal with the NBA, that is they have to be innovators with this deal because there are no other deals like it in the space. A skin care brand, with a major sports league, they cannot use some other brand an example of what not to do and of what to do. The job that CeraVe has is difficult in a way of switching the way that they will be perceived by this whole new audience, since they are trying to show themselves as a self care/ recovery product it can become difficult for the already existing customers to be confused or question the integrity of the company. 

This marketing approach from CeraVe is nothing short of unique and remarkable, since this kind of deal, two very different brands that have come together for obvious mutual benefit. A skin care brand making a partner deal with a sports company/league is a first of its kind and when a deal like this is made, it allows the brand to pave a new marketing space and a new blueprint for other “beauty” brands entering the sports scene. 

I also believe that the approach they took was very smart, testing the waters with a social-first strategy is a great way to see what the consumer does and doesn’t like. Using the meme account they are able to get earned media from just simply posting, and other people will notice and they will then be advertising for CeraVe themselves, either by word of mouth, sending it to other friends, or reposting. This approach they use is amazing, it allows them to still introduce themselves but not too firmly. They do it in a discreet way that slowly adapts the unfamiliar consumer to their brand in a funny way that is not too concrete. 

Something I would definitely do if I were the product/marketing manager is partner with athletes around multiple sports, and I would particularly choose the “pretty boys” of the leagues. Because it shows that the products they use is what keeps them looking good through all of they’re hard training and they’re very physically intense job. I would sponsor/partner with NBA player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he is a NBA phenomenon, he was the NBA MVP last season with a record breaking season. With all of the hype surrounding his name he is a perfect first candidate going into the space, he is also seen by the media as a very handsome man and a very big pretty boy. So this would be a puzzle piece fit for CeraVe.

I have learned something big within this assignment, and that is the way a brand is seen by the media is very very important. CeraVe’s approach to their partnership with the NBA is them having to adapt and portray themselves as a brand they have been seen as one certain thing. But with this partnership, they get to almost re-brand themselves to the media and show that they are not just for “beauty” interested people, but by people who want to look better and use CeraVe as a recovery product. 

ARTICLE LINK: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/inside-ceraves-social-first-partnership-with-the-nba/801806/