W
hen Kenyatta Bynoe was promoted to vice president of global brand marketing at Spalding last year, she was met with an empowering, yet daunting, mandate: Remake an iconic brand that had fallen behind in the spaces that were most relevant to the young consumers who should represent its core, turning awareness into engagement.
Kenyatta Bynoe
Spalding // Vice president, global brand marketing and partnerships
“It starts with being present where they are,” said Bynoe, who came to Spalding three years ago after spending most of her career marketing automotive brands. “When I started the job, we weren’t present. We were relying on exposure we get through our partnership with the NBA, but we weren’t present where young athletes were consuming content.”
Bynoe attacked that shortcoming on two fronts. She augmented the long-standing relationship with the league, which was badly lacking flesh and blood, by signing a half dozen NBA players, including Chris Paul, Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan, to represent the brand at clinics and in digital content. And she radically redesigned the website, creating a basketball hub that hinges on the idea that Spalding can help you become a better player, pegged to the hashtag True Believers.
“It was overwhelming at first when you think about everything you wanted to do and knew needed to be done,” Bynoe said. “But it’s about developing a road map and then implementing it. I took almost a year to develop that road map. You really want to fit with the strategic imperatives of the business, but at the same time you’re learning the business, figuring out who the right partners are and what the right resources are.
“It was a big adjustment personally and professionally.”
