Few of us are immune to the allure of a little treat.
For team marketers who send gift boxes to members of the media whose votes determine regular-season awards like MVP and Rookie of the Year, they’re banking on it.
The gift boxes are a way to share information about individual players and coaches as voters decide who to cast their votes for, and team execs said the gifts can even serve an additional purpose beyond helping to advocate for their candidates: generating publicity.
This year, some WNBA teams like the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty worked months in advance to sweeten—or, in some cases, spice up—the pot for award voters.
“You’re just never quite sure how much people have been watching your team and have an understanding of what your players are doing,” Heather Meyer, VP of marketing for the Minnesota Lynx, told Marketing Brew. “It’s become tradition, and it’s something that we as a team put a fair amount of time and thought into, because we do believe it matters.”
Juice up
The Liberty have a history of partnering with local businesses for their awards campaigns. Last year, when Liberty power forward Breanna Stewart was named MVP, it teamed up with pizza shop Fini (which has a location at Barclays Center, where the team plays) to wrap a food truck in Liberty branding and distribute pizza in boxes with Stewart’s stats printed on them, Liberty Chief Brand Officer Shana Stephenson said.
This year, PR Manager Bryan Flannery had the idea to partner with a juice bar after seeing a tweet mentioning that “the Liberty have the juice,” Stephenson said. The team tapped The Nourish Spot, a health-food restaurant with locations in Queens and Brooklyn, to create six juices, one based on each of the five players they were campaigning for, and another paying tribute to its fans.
New York Liberty
The bottles, which were sent to media members in Liberty-branded cooler bags, included player stats where nutrition facts are usually printed. The Liberty also handed out samples at games, displayed the juices in the media room at Barclays Center, and shared the graphics for the bottles on social media, Stephenson said.
“We typically make sure that there is a social media component, because it’s a way to drive buzz and perhaps have fans influence some of the media’s votes,” she said.
The Indiana Fever also went the sweet-treat route this season, sending a chocolate record with a mini-hammer as part of its campaign advocating for record-breaker Caitlin Clark to win Rookie of the Year, which she did. The team also made a website displaying her stats to compliment the gift box. Clark was named Rookie of the Year on Thursday, and for the Liberty, Stewart was named to the All-Defensive First Team and forward Jonquel Jones made the All-Defensive Second Team. Leonie Fiebich of the Liberty and Clark are both part of this year’s All-Rookie Team.
Spice girls
The Lynx decided to spice things up with custom hot sauces, focusing their efforts on forward Napheesa Collier, who was named Defensive Player of the Year, Meyer said. Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve was named both Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year, making her the first coach in league history to receive the award four times, though Meyer said the team didn’t send a kit on her behalf.
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The idea to send hot sauce to campaign for Collier stemmed from a June game during which she got tangled up with Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike under the basket. The exchange became a bit heated, and Collier flashed the “bye-bye” gesture, which was a relatively “huge reaction” for her, Meyer said.
“We thought that was a really interesting parallel to Minnesota, and ‘Minnesota nice,’” Meyer said. “We’re always going to be super friendly, smile on our faces, all of that, but there is a little bit of passive-aggressiveness underneath that…She’s going to be Minnesota nice, but don’t get her started, because there’s some spice under that nice.”
The Lynx worked with the Taylor Corporation, a company that Lynx owner Glen Taylor founded and owns and helps source products like giveaway items for the team, to put together a kit of three hot sauces with its branding on them, Meyer said: A chipotle flavor called “Lockdown Inferno,” a garlic-habanero flavor called “Scorpion Sizzle,” and an original flavor it named “Phee-esta Phire” inspired by Collier’s nickname, Phee. The sauces were packaged in a Lynx-branded box and called “Spicy and Nicey,” Meyer said.
Long game
Deciding which players and coaches to push for awards—and potentially build custom gifts around—is no small task. Both the Lynx and the Liberty officially started the process this summer around the time of WNBA All-Star Weekend and the Olympic break, bringing together people from their marketing, PR, and basketball operations teams to discuss, Stephenson and Meyer told us.
The time and effort is worth it, they said: Well-done awards packages can lead to positive publicity for teams, especially if media members with large followings post about them, and the campaigns can also give teams an opportunity to show appreciation for their players.
“We really take it as our responsibility or duty to make sure that our players are getting the recognition they deserve,” Stephenson said. “I think our players see the work that we do, and they appreciate it. We have so many players on our team that have played elsewhere, and they didn’t always get the same level of attention that we show our players here.”