Dribbling through adversity and scoring a brand slam dunk

Up until two years ago you could have been forgiven for thinking that there was only one basketball team in Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Lakers.

In the 2012/2013 NBA season the Los Angeles Lakers lost their season series against the Los Angeles Clippers for the first time in 20 years. This season sees the Lakers sit and watch as the Clippers go to the NBA playoffs with a chance for the overall title.

Finally after years of being ‘the other basketball team in Los Angeles’ (they even share the same stadium as the Lakers) the Los Angeles Clippers are a basketball brand on the rise. But at the end of last month disaster struck as the owner was caught making racist comments.

Fans, the press and especially sponsors were outraged with an estimated $30-50m of sponsors, including Adidas, Samsung and Kia, walking out on the brand within hours of the news being leaked.

The brand was on the brink of destruction.

The team at the Clippers understood that they needed to work ‘quickly and firmly’. They looked deeply into their brand and how the key truth of their brand was that they are an innovator and key part of the one of the most progressive and diverse sports leagues in the world.

Following the immediate sacking, lifetime NBA ban and $2.5m fine handed to the manager the Clipper’s homepage was replaced with the white words ‘We are one’ on a complete black background, soon almost every other team in the league had the same.

The players cancelled their pre-planned strike from playing and won the next game, the fans attended like never before with 6.47 million viewers ranking it the most watched cable game of the NBA playoffs, and almost all of the sponsors have returned. This story shows how power of a brand can bring people together inside and outside of that brand.

The brand managed to dribble through adversity with fast and clear decisions to score a slam dunk for the brand. It seems that with this understanding of their brand, soon you could once again be forgiven for thinking that there is only basketball team in Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Clippers.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27248645

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/nba-la-clippers-donald-sterling-lifetime-ban-racist-comments

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2014/05/05/140505-NBA-Clippers-Impact.aspx

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2014/05/01/NBA-Clippers-Content-Strategy-140501.aspx
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