At first glance, basketball and golf don’t seem to have much in common…Except for the fact that hoopers like Stephen Curry and Caitlin Clark occasionally hit the links.
For its latest campaign, performance apparel brand Rhone paired the two sports up—even though Ben Checketts, Rhone’s co-founder and creative director, is the first to admit that the NBA and LPGA are “very different” leagues—in a series of ads starring Miami Heat power forward Kevin Love and LPGA athletes Lilia Vu and Lauren Hartlage.
As Rhone continues its expansion into women’s apparel, and as the importance of mental health becomes an increasingly resonant subject across sports, the campaign is meant to expand Rhone’s reach while demonstrating its long-standing commitment to physical and mental fitness, Checketts said.
“The pressures that are facing Kevin Love are incredibly different than the pressures that are facing Lilia Vu,” Checketts told Marketing Brew. “But there is that common ground of, ‘We’re both athletes, we’re both at the top of our games in many respects, we’ve won a lot, we’ve lost a lot, [and] we’ve suffered a lot.’”
Show some love
The campaign, called “Head in the Game,” includes TV spots centered around the LPGA and the NBA, as well as out-of-home ads in Times Square and other locations. The ads, which started running on Tuesday, are meant to flip the script on the phrase “get your head in the game,” Checketts said.
“We really wanted to take what could be conceived as a negative phrase of, ‘Get your head in the game,’ and spin it for the positive,” he said. “Fans, coaches, players, everybody can get their head in the game by understanding these two components and how they work in their lives: both physical health and mental fitness.”
Rhone became an official partner of both the NBA and the LPGA earlier this year. The NBA offers Rhone access to a “very diverse…very fashion-forward” fanbase, Checketts said, and Love was a natural fit for this campaign. Love has written and spoken about his own experiences with anxiety and depression, and after originally speaking out about it, established the Kevin Love Fund to help address the stigma around mental health. Rhone plans to donate to the fund as part of the campaign, according to a press release.
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Rhone signed deals with Vu and Hartlage over the summer also due to their track records with mental health advocacy, Checketts said. On top of that, both women are “rising stars,” making them ideal partners for Rhone, he said, especially considering the brand debuted its first complete women’s line in May.
“Our attitude really is to, in the majority of cases, make stars instead of finding them,” Checketts said.
Track record
It’s become fairly common to see athletic brands address mental health in their marketing, but Rhone has been doing it since the company was founded in 2014, according to Checketts.
In the earlier days of the brand, Rhone began hosting an event series called Mind & Muscle that gathered men for workout sessions in Rhone stores, followed by what was “essentially group therapy,” Checketts said. More than 1,000 people have participated over the years, he said, and the company has hosted more than 50 Mind & Muscle events so far in 2024. Rhone now intends to include women in the series, which features upcoming events tied to the NBA and LPGA partnerships.
Between the reach of both leagues, events, ads, and user-generated content, Checketts said he hopes the campaign boosts brand awareness and further solidifies Rhone’s dedication to mental health.
“We want to be sticking out in a good way, and so we are really putting our money where our mouth is,” he said. “All of these partnerships are not necessarily to sell more stuff, [they’re] to use as a platform so that we can speak to this message, which we really do take to heart.”