- Grooming goods brand Duke Cannon is sponsoring the student that wears the Iowa State University mascot suit during March Madness college basketball tournament. The deal is the first-ever, un-NIL deal.
- This campaign is part of Duke Cannon’s larger brand refresh with new packaging and that is centered around how consumers can “Earn Your Clean.”
- The effort includes humorous vintage looking TV, digital and social videos featuring the Cy the Cardinal mascot.
The brand recently launched a new platform with new product packaging and the NCAA Tournament was the ideal media moment to get in front of their primarily male audience and drive brand awareness.
“March is the time where everyone’s attention is on college basketball,” Oliver Perez, chief marketing officer at Duke Cannon. “The idea was, who’s the hardest working member of a basketball team? It’s actually the mascot. We couldn’t think of a more fitting representation of our brand – someone that puts in the hard work and isn’t doing it for glory and recognition. They’re doing it because they love what they do. They love their work. What a fun way of celebrating that kind of guy.”
While mascots get a lot of attention on the court, their identity is completely anonymous. Duke Cannon wanted to take advantage of the popularity around name, image or likeness deals and flip the script and drive attention to their challenger brand. This approach allowed the brand to get “attention in a crowded category,” said Perez. “We wanted to just get out there with a strong point of view, which is all about celebrating like the hardworking guys that are out there getting stuff done.”
Perez is speaking at Brand Innovators Culture & Entertainment Summit at the NCAA Final Four on April 4th.
