Recently there has been a lot of talk about adding different ads to the front of NBA basketball jerseys to help promote a certain brand.  This idea being passed by the NBA caught my attention because I was very interested to see what time of companies would pay to be on an NBA basketball jerseys.

I then began to think about the “free marketing” they would be getting by putting their name or logo onto a teams jersey and I then realized how good of an idea it would be for both sides.  I have seen many articles that have been discussing different NBA teams figuring out contracts with companies about how much the branding will cost to the company, and all I have to say is wow.  The amount of money these companies are willing to pay to have their small logo on the jersey is pretty crazy.  For example some Japanese company called Rakuten made a deal for $20 million over three years to be on the front of the Golden State Warriors jerseys.  This began to show the price people are willing to pay to get their company name out their and the amount that they are planning to earn back from having their name on the jersey.

            I believe this deal will not be the biggest in the coming months before the NBA season, I imagine even more money to be paid to be on someone’s jersey.  But another question I had was how you would choose the teams jersey you want to be on.  I realized that the best way to figure this out was to look at the records, the all-star players, and even the amount of games that will be aired around the world of each NBA team.  Companies have been looking at all this sort of data to figure out which team would benefit them in the long run.  Companies know that the more air time the team gets the more people that will see their logo, and even the different types of all star players on the team will make the value of the putting the brand on the jersey even higher. 

            After, I looked at all the different brands that had already made deals with different NBA teams.  Some of the companies I had no idea who they were and some I knew exactly who they were and what they did.  When looking at the companies I only recognized around three of the brands and the rest I had to look up to figure out what service they did, or what product they produced.  Thinking about it this is exactly what some of these brands are expecting, they realize that not everyone has heard of them and if they can at least get people to type in their name into Google that is a huge win in their books.  The companies just want to get their name out their and once they do that, that will be when money starts showing up because people will be interested in what their brand has and begin buying or investing in the service they have.

            The brands on jerseys are really benefiting both sides.  They are giving exposure to somewhat smaller companies that are not household names around the country and are giving the NBA teams more money to market themselves and make the experience for their fans even better.

Gaines, C. (2017, June 20). 8 NBA teams that now have advertising patches on their jerseys. Retrieved September 14, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/nba-teams-with-jerseys-ads-2017-6/#philadelphia-76ers-and-stubhub-1

Jack Maloney @jackmaloneycbs Sep 12, 2017 • 1 min read. (2017, September 12). Warriors partner with Rakuten for NBA's most lucrative jersey sponsorship deal. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/warriors-partner-with-rakuten-for-nbas-most-lucrative-jersey-sponsorship-deal/