Shock Doctor Leverages NBA Partnership With Digital/Social ‘A Mouthful of Fearless’ Campaign & Contest

‘A Mouthful of Fearless’, the first activation campaign from the NBA’s new official mouthguard sponsor Shock Doctor, aims to showcase the league’s athletic talent and physical play while simultaneously driving awareness for protective benefits of mouthguards in basketball.

The initiative, which spans digital and social content pieces and a fan contest, is fronted by Shock Doctor three major NBA athlete endorsers Harrison Barnes, DeMarcus Cousins, and Kevin Love.

The campaign, the biggest in the athletic protection and performance brand’s history, primarily focuses on across digital, social and mobile channels (including the brand’s own platforms, plus NBA.com WNBA.com and DLeague.NBA.com) and relevant sports outlets.

It aims to encourage young ballers to play with ‘A Mouthful of Fearless’ and to educate them about the importance of protecting themselves against injury

Launched just months after becoming the official NBA mouthguard to coincide with the new 2017/17 season, the campaign creative and messaging focus on the sense of confidence mouthguards can provide young athletes.

Led by video, still imagery and quotes from league stars and brand ambassadors Love (a 2016 NBA Champion Kevin Love), Cousins (a two-time NBA All-Star) and Barnes (a 2015 NBA Champion) showing how wearing a mouthguards has made them fearless, the leverage programme runs across YouTube,

Facebook,

Instagram,

A Mouthful of Fearless.⠀ The Official Mouthguard of The @NBA and You.⠀ ⠀ #GuardYours

A photo posted by Shock Doctor (@shockdoctor) on Oct 25, 2016 at 9:57am PDT

Twitter,

A Mouthful of Fearless.
The Official Mouthguard of The #NBA and You.#GuardYours pic.twitter.com/8qtChHqlxt

— Shock Doctor (@ShockDoctor) October 25, 2016

as well as across the campaign landing page at https://www.shockdoctor.com/fearless.

A competition strand of the activation invites basketball players across all layers of the game to take part in a photo contest.

The competition, which runs through January 2017, offers multiple prizes including a grand prize of two tickets to the NBA All-Star game in New Orleans (including flights and a hotel stay).

Another phase of the brand’s league sponsorship will sees Shock Doctor participate in youth-focused clinics through the Jr NBA to help promote the importance of mouthguard use.

‘The NBA is a role model for basketball players of all levels, so we wanted to extend our partnership in a meaningful way to help young athletes,’ outlines Tony Armand, CEO of United Sports Brands, the parent company of Shock Doctor.

‘In addition to educating young players, we’ll also be teaching coaches and parents about how mouthguards can protect against tooth loss and facial injuries.’

Comment

Research data suggests that nearly one third of all basketball injuries to high school athletes during basketball competition are to the head and face and yet, while mouthguards are a critical piece of facial protective equipment, they are not compulsory in basketball.

It was back in June 2016 that Shock Doctor was unveiled as the official mouthguard of the NBA, WNBA, NBA D League and USA Basketball.

The multi-year NBA agreement, is largely based around promoting safety throughout the sport, will also see the company develop league and team branded mouthguards for retail opportunities.

‘We place great importance across all our brands on providing the best on-court protection,’ said CEO Armand when the partnership was announced during the summer.

‘Our partnership with the NBA allows us to continue to speak to our key audience – passionate and devoted athletes who know they need the best protective equipment to stay safe on the court.’

The partmership is also part of Shock Doctor’s long term plan, which CEO Armand says is ‘to take a much bigger bite of the sports-equipment market’ and become ‘the next Under Armour’.

In addition to mouthguards, Shock Doctor has recently moved into other product areas such as sports-protective head gear, jock straps, cups to football gloves, knee braces and insoles, plus new tech products.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based business has been growing at a rate of 20-30% per year with annual sales heading towards $100m.

Links:

Shock Doctor ‘Fearless’ Landing Page:

https://www.shockdoctor.com/fearless

Shock Doctor Web:

https://www.shockdoctor.com/

Shock Doctor Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/shockdoctor/

Shock Doctor Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/shockdoctor/

Shock Doctor YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/shockdoctor

Shock Doctor Twitter: