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Marketing and Sponsorship

Rough Upbringing, Selective Eye For Sponsors Gives Bulls' Jimmy Butler Unique Opportunities

Endorsement offers "are rolling in" for Bulls G Jimmy Butler, who this past season won the NBA Most Improved Player Award and recently has "hawked brands such as Mountain Dew and True Religion jeans and appeared in ads for BMO Harris and the Illinois Lottery," according to Danny Ecker of CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS. Experts "peg Butler's current annual endorsement income in the mid-six figures." But Butler's agent, Relativity Sports CEO Happy Walters, said that the number of inquiries from companies "has doubled since January." Future deals "are in a holding pattern" until Butler decides where he will play next season. Out of "personal preference, he opted to drop Adidas as his official apparel brand in favor of Nike's Jordan brand last year." Walters said that the decision resulted in a 75% "pay cut." Walters: "A lot of guys get in the NBA and want to do everything that comes by because they want to see their faces somewhere. Jimmy has been really patient.” Ecker wrote Butler "remains a regional star, relevant only to Chicagoans." Butler was "homeless for a time," and his back story has "made him appealing for brands wanting to reach at-risk youth." Kellogg Senior Dir of Marketing Jeremy Harper said that Butler's “'great reputation on and off the court' as well as his 'humble upbringing and commitment to helping provide resources to children in need' led the company to make him a headliner of a 'national breakfast week' promotion." Ecker wrote Butler has "steadily built a social media persona." Butler "counts more than 364,000 Instagram followers," up 60% since the start of '15, placing him "in the top 40 among 322 NBA players with active accounts." It reportedly costs marketers $10,000 to "get a shoutout" from Butler on Instagram. But Walters said that he is "unaware of any such formal deals" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 5/23).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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