Beats by Dr. Dre and NBA unveil global marketing and merchandising partnership

NBA and Beats logos

The Apple-owned headphone brand Beats by Dr. Dre yesterday announced a global marketing and merchandising partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The comprehensive deal will make Beats the official headphone, wireless speaker and audio partner of the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), NBA G League and USA Basketball beginning in October 2018.

Beats customers can expect a line of NBA team-branded headphones.

Beats will also provide its audio product to players during marquee events, including NBA All-Star, NBA Draft presented by State Farm, international NBA games in China and Europe, WNBA All-Star, WNBA Draft presented by State Farm and USA Basketball men’s and women’s national team exhibition tours.

Luke Wood, President of Beats by Dr. Dre, was quoted as saying:

The NBA and its players have long been significant drivers of global culture. Basketball, music and style speak as one voice: Julius Erving became a style icon, Allen Iverson cemented hip hop’s place on and off the court and LeBron James is breaking new music every day… The list goes on and on. This partnership with the NBA is the perfect alignment for Beats. It feels like coming home.

The multi-year deal will leverage an extensive roster of NBA stars including LeBron James, Draymond Green, James Harden, Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Now owned by Apple, Beats by Dr. Dre was co-founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.

Since its inception in 2008, Beats has relied heavily on having famous athletes and musicians promote their headphones by appearing in Beats advertising or music videos, wearing them in public and so forth. Because sports has always been part of the brand, this new partnership between the NBA and Beats makes lots of sense to me.

How about you?