A Nuggets Playoff Run and What it Means for Denver Advertising

At the time we’re writing this blog post, the Denver Nuggets play the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Currently, Minnesota leads the series 2-0.

Despite the rocky start, this season’s playoff run (and the general success of the franchise over the past few years) will likely mean brand deals and new marketing opportunities regardless of how the series turns out.

We talked a little bit about athlete endorsements in our latest blog post on humanizing your brand, and there’s no better case study for the strategic value of popular athletes like Nuggets star and MVP award winner Nikola Jokic, for example, than a season ending in a playoff run.

Athletes have massive online followings, and their word can carry serious weight when it comes to improving a brand’s perceived credibility. Most consumers like to feel an emotional connection to a brand, and that’s even more accurate when you take fans into account.

For instance, If a die hard Nuggets fan finds out that Jamal Murray wears New Balance basketball shoes, they’re probably much more likely to go out and snag a pair for themselves. Ideally, the association grows, so that fans can feel just as much ownership for their favorite player when they’re wearing those sneakers as they would sporting a jersey with their name on it.

This type of association makes the brand more visible, boosts their sales, and strategically positions the shoe brand to increase their market penetration from people looking for comfort-first footwear to runners and athletes that are seeking high-quality products that can support extremely active lifestyles.

So, how does a Nuggets W in the post-season actually impact advertising in our city?

Victories in primetime games like these with national reach give an increased level of visibility to not only the teams playing, but the athletes themselves, and, ultimately, the

products that they choose to align themselves with. When a brand chooses a highly-visible player like Jokic or Murray to be the face of their products, they’re capitalizing on both the guarantee of a dynamic performance come game time and the influence they have over loyal fans.

Let’s Go Nuggets!