Question

Why does an under-the-radar cross-border marketplace sponsor the Los Angeles Lakers and boxing events and do advertising when an NBA superstar decides to leave the city of Toronto? Wish, the San Francisco based e-commerce marketplace, is an outlier and also a pioneer.

Wish offers consumers a marketplace that links brands and manufacturers with global consumers. Wish, previously called Context Logic, was started by Peter Szulczewski and Danny Zhang and provides consumers with access to low-cost products. The caveat is that customers can purchase the products, but delivery could take several days.

Wish invested marketing into sponsorship of the Los Angeles Lakers at a time when marketplaces did not invest into live sports. Subsequently, Alibaba and Amazon have invested significant amounts into offering their consumers with access to live sports via streaming video platforms. Wish's sponsorship of the Lakers is a logo patch on the iconic NBA jersey. I spoke with Glenn Lehrman, Wish's VP/Head of Communications to learn more about this exciting sponsorship. Lehrman, previously an executive at StubHub, explained that the sponsorship aimed to help Wish gain new merchants from markets such as Europe and Latin America. In 2019, the sponsorship has moved away from B2B to more of a B2C strategy as Wish can use it as a social media lever.

A global brand for a worldwide business

Wish decided to sponsor the Lakers after deciding which brands would assist the marketplace in meeting consumers globally. Consumers are no longer watching linear television, so brand advertising on traditional advertising makes little sense. Also, as Wish is a digital business, the lack of analytics from TV advertising provided another reason why sports marketing was a logical brand extension. The Lakers are an iconic brand which provided Wish with additional credibility but also the opportunity to leverage customer interest in a concentrated format. Sports is the last remaining broadcast event that is linear and has a global impact. Wish's choice of the Lakers also aligned with their business philosophy of democratizing commerce.

Wish has also sponsored boxing (who will ever forget the mega-fight between Mayweather and McGregor) which goes hand-in-hand with their blue-collar approach to customer segmentation. The Lakers and boxing provide Wish with global audiences that align with their universal appeal, as these sports are global events. I ask Lehrman, whether Wish is looking for other sponsorship opportunities, and he mentions that fit and cash efficiency are essential factors when Wish looks for what is next.

Customers remember who was first

Lehrman made a fascinating comment regarding sports marketing. "Consumers remember who was first to invest sponsorship in a team or building and then will continue to call the team or facility by the name of the first sponsor." On a worldwide scale, Wish's deal with the Lakers can be seen similarly as Rakuten's investment into FC Barcelona. Both the teams are iconic in different markets, yet they have enabled the sponsors to reach customers worldwide.

Wish evolves

Currently, Wish's US consumers can access a new tab in the app to view branded products. This tab will roll-out to the world in September and provides Wish with additional opportunity to grow its revenue. The new tab ensures that brand owners do not have to worry about their products being seen next to products such as avocado slicers. Brands can leverage Wish's international audience as a tool to move products without negatively impacting their local market offering.

Wish continues to zigs when the e-commerce sector zags and the branded products, and accelerated shipping speeds shows that Wish is thinking long-term. Think of the campaign in which Wish helped the city of Toronto try and retain their superstar. It shows agile and creative thinking to showcase a brand in a City that was captivated the NBA free-agency market.

In using sports marketing as a brand marketing tool, Wish highlights its different culture and being willing to try different ideas to scale an e-commerce business into a cross-border behemoth

Questions:

1. How would you evaluate brands like Swish utilizing sport marketing to help grow its brand in the global market? Does this do more than just create name/brand awareness? Does it matter if it stops at awareness?
   
2. Are there brands you have become aware of because they have sponsored a jersey, team, or event? If so, what brand, and how did you eventually engage with the brand? If not, what causes you to not pay attention to in-event sponsorships?
   
3. Are there specific teams and events that are more effective in growing a brand? Why or why not? Are there specific sponsorships (e.g., jersey, on-court, in-arena, etc.) that are more effective in creating brand awareness?

please answer the questions above

Answer 1

According to the case study, the solution of the problem would be

q1.swish is utilizing sports as a medium to promote its brand. sports is a global event and associating the brand with sport can be lucrative because there are so many sports lovers all around the world who love to engage in sports. for example in the indian scenario lot of sports legends like Sachin Tendulkar have sponsored leading sports brands I, therefore, would like to stay that utilising sports as an event will increase the market share for swish in the global market. Because increasing advertisement will lead to a positive impact on the market which is global.yes awareness about the brand will increase definitely the market share of swish. Therefore awareness or global ad spending should increase and not stop.



q2. as per the case study I understand that I have not come across any brand which has sponsored a jersey or other product.
I think that event sponsorships will not make a large impact on the market because the area covered by event sponsorships is not large. Therefore I would like to say that event sponsorships should not be given much importance as the impact of the same is not as large as compared to global spending on advertising.



q3 yes Alibaba and amazon are the companies that have been successful in growing a brand .yes on a worldwide scale wish's deal with the lakers can be seen similarly as a great investment. These teams like Alibaba and amazon have made a great impact on the market.