The Best Marketing Thing We’ve Seen This Week: The Phoenix Suns’ Gorilla Got Himself a Shoe Deal
It’s early in the week, but this has to my favorite marketing move of the week.
In what is being promoted and positioned as the “first mascot endorsement deal in professional sports,” the Gorilla mascot of the Phoenix Suns has inked itself an agreement with Phoenix-based streetwear brand Guest List.
The team pushed out the news on Twitter with all the swag it deserved.
What is not to love here?
It’s just another, errrr, fur-in-the-cap for a franchise that has reinvented itself. The Suns sit atop the Western Conference. James Jones is a leading candidate for NBA Executive of the Year. And the club is doing things “off the court” — from their venues to innovative partnerships to technology, branding and fan experience — that make “The Valley” feel hotter than an August AZ afternoon.
The Gorilla deal is a marketing move/PR stunt/brand activation that simply furthers that trend. It screams: “Our club is so fire that even our mascot has a shoe and apparel deal.”
For Guest List, it’s also a huge coup and a super-smart move. They get tons of great exposure from the PR novelty of it all, not to mention on-court and in-arena visibility at every Suns home age during a playoff push and beyond. Already you’ve got national outlets like SI, Bleacher Report and NBA.com doing feature-length stories on the sponsorship. Imagine that exposure and the ROI for a regional shoe and apparel boutique!??!
Just genius all around. I’ll be keeping an eye for “Gorillawear” in the days and weeks to come. Oh, and as the ultimate sign of respect for the Suns’ marketing game, don’t be surprised if a flurry of mascot deals follows.
