Beats by Dre

Athletes as marketing vehicles: turn unbranded moments into branded ones

Shaan's framework for recovery/sports products: athletes are the greatest marketing vehicle, and what matters is native placement (LeBron actually using a device, not a paid ad). Walk a locker room, find the unbranded pregame/postgame moments, and turn them into branded ones, as Beats by Dre did with headphones before it sold to Apple for $3B.

“The framework is athletes are one of the greatest marketing vehicles of all time. Go look at the shoe companies if you want proof of that. Uh, go look at Gatorade, go look at who McDonald's and Coke will sponsor. It's the top athletes. Even though they're obviously not eating McDonald's and drinking Coke in order to perform their best. But they're the best marketing vehicle, and the native placement is what matters.”

Steal thisFind the unbranded things athletes do pregame/postgame and make a higher-quality branded version they'll use on camera.