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Six years later, Kobe's marketing rehab nearly complete
Oct 12, 2009
Marketing/Sponsorship
Six years later, Bryant’s marketing rehab is nearly complete
Terry Lefton | Sports Business Journal
The 2009-10 NBA season tips off this month with Kobe Bryant serving as the lead spokesman for Panini’s trading cards and 2K Sports’ “NBA 2K10” video game. Six years ago, Bryant was embroiled in a messy and widely publicized sexual assault case that sometimes forced him to commute from a Colorado court during the day to Lakers games the same night. The charges were eventually dropped after Bryant’s 19-year-old accuser refused to testify in the trial.
With four NBA championships, regular-season and playoff MVPs, two league scoring titles, an Olympic gold medal and a slam-dunk competition trophy on his mantle, Bryant’s on-court credibility can’t be questioned. Now that he’s endorsing video games and trading cards, two licensed products targeted at kids and teens, it is time to ask whether his rehab as an endorser is absolute.
While fellow NBA uber-star LeBron James talks a lot about being a global icon, Bryant’s popularity overseas is tough to match. Measured by jersey sales, Web searches or even his reputation on the global stage after leading the “Redeem Team” to an Olympic win in Beijing, Bryant has the global chops — and the fact that he grew up overseas and is multilingual adds to his credibility.
Under the intense spotlight of a distressed celebrity, much was made of Bryant’s endorsements that did not get renewed during his legal troubles — McDonald’s, Coke and Nutella. Now the Lakers star has a rebuilt portfolio that includes Coke’s Vitaminwater; his longtime Nike contract; Panini, now the exclusive NBA trading-card licensee; and 2K. In China, Bryant is a spokesman for Sina.com (the Chinese equivalent of Yahoo! or Google) and business-to-business/e-commerce site Alibaba.
Bryant’s agent, Rob Pelinka, calls Bryant the second most popular athlete worldwide, behind only Tiger Woods. Of course, you’d expect him to say that, but it’s still an interesting perspective.
“My sense is that during this phase of his career, the marketing community has really learned who Kobe is,” Pelinka said. “Kobe is incredibly driven, committed to excellence and one of the hardest workers in all of sports. But people have come to see the lighter side of Kobe, too.”
Of course, like any marketing program, it’s dependent upon the target consumer.
The Davie-Brown Index shows that while Bryant’s awareness is at levels equaled by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Babe Ruth, he lags top athletes like Peyton Manning, James and Dwyane Wade in their measures of trust and likability.
“Kobe’s done nothing off the court since the Colorado case that would make you concerned as a marketer,” said Darin David, account director at Omnicom agency Millsport. “He’s come a long way, but he’s still behind some of his athletic peers. So if I would chose Kobe for a client, it would probably be because his international fame really sets him apart.”
Clearly, Bryant’s rehabilitation as a marketing icon is nearly complete. However, he will need a domestic non-endemic deal as the ultimate proof that he’s back to prior levels. New NBA sponsor Taco Bell not only needs a spokesman, but targets young males more so than the family crowds others covet. Given Taco Bell’s Irvine, Calif., headquarters, we wonder if Kobe won’t be touting tacos soon. Then we’d consider him a worthy challenger for LeBron — on and off the hardwood.
