Kobe Bryant : From a basketball court to BODYARMOR's board

I know that you are familiar with this face, but I bet that you are not aware of his bond with the sports drink brand BODYARMOR.

Let me explain you their story!

While most of famous athletes have several endorsement deals with big brands, some of them are going further by investing in those companies. It is the case of the NBA Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. In March 2014, he acquired a large stake in BODYARMOR with its new own company « Kobe Inc ».

Source : ESPN website

As a reminder, BodyArmor was created in 2011 by Lance Collins and Mike Repole and is now one of the most powerful sport drink in the US marketplace.

By entering the board of the company, Koby Bryant became the 4th shareholder after the brand’s cofounder Mike Repole, Coca Cola and Dr Pepper.

As if it was not enough, the basketball player doesn’t just invest in the company, he is also very involved in their marketing and communication. Not a basic endorsement deal as most of athletes are doing with sport drink brands. He is really part of the whole company, from the strategic part to the creative one.

After only 4 years, Kobe Bryant’s 6M investment is now worth 200M according to ESPN's Darren Rovell.

As mentioned before, since he joined BODYARMOR, Kobe Bryant is really involved in the company’s life. For example, the last Body Armor advertising was completely created and directed by himself. For this shot, Bryant included some other athletes such as James Harden, Kristaps Porzingis or Mike Trout.

The 5 starts NBA's champion did not hesitate to call out « Gatorade » in the ad. At the end, we can see the tagline. "Thanks Gatorade. We'll take it from here." This is not done randomly.

Gatorade, owned by Pepsi Co, has 70% of sport drinks marketshares, far above Powerade, owned by Coca Cola which has only 17.5%. And then comes BodyArmor in the third place, with only 3%, according to Euromonitor International.

At 40 years old, Kobe Bryant is clearely succeeding in his post-basketball career.

Lucie Lowe

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