A winning smile?
And how Bos Nation FC ballsed-up...
I am going to make it a short one this week as unfortunately I am feeling under the weather and once I hit send I will be retreating to my bed to watch today’s WSL and NFL fixtures.
This week, I wanted to tell you about a panel I virtually attended. I tuned into Front Office Sports’ future of women’s sports event, which featured four sessions covering various topics relating to women’s sports.
As the event took place during my evening, I was multi-tasking, making dinner at the same time. I missed the intros for the second panel, “The Staying Power of the Female Athlete Brand,” and was taken aback when the host kept referring to a company on the panel called Invisalign.
What an unfortunate name to select for a sports marketing organization. Everyone is gonna think they are the orthodontics company, I thought to myself while stirring my pasta sauce.
A few minutes later, I realized it was actually Invisalign, the orthodontics company. Their vice president of marketing Kamal Bhandal was on the panel to discuss the brand’s investment in women athletes from high school all the way up to the professional leagues.
I got Invisalign later in life and yet it never occurred to me that there natural connection between Invisalign and the world of sports. It’s a smart marketing move. A quick Google shows how the Invisalign style of braces can be a better fit for athletes because they don’t have brackets or wires, so this reduces the chances of injury to the mouth for close-contact play. Invisalign also requires fewer repairs — ideal for athletes with intense schedules.
“I grew up playing basketball,” said Zora Stephenson, a commentator at NBC Sports and host of the panel. “I had my braces in and I can't tell you how many times I had to go to the orthodontist because my brackets were broken when a basketball would hit my mouth, I wouldn't have had that problem if I had Invisalign as a part of my smile journey.”
It’s interesting to see Invisalign’s moves to partner with women athletes as it demonstrates how women’s sports is evolving and how brands are thinking more holistically about women athletes, their fandoms, and the behind-the-scenes operational divisions that bring the two together. Invisalign’s Bhandal makes clear they aren’t just looking to connect with athletes, but also those working within the business of sports such as videographers and those in the front office division.
“To your question around monetization, I always think about the fact that the more authentic stories any brand can have being told by their customers, by their community, that's the best type of word of mouth I think that you can get,” said Bhandal on the panel. “And really that storytelling and that experience as part of the athlete's life is the part that's most interesting.”
“Once the evaluation is complete and the orthodontist and the athlete come to an agreement to move forward then that's where we step in and we work with the athlete directly to architect that storytelling of who she is and to tell her story so that it does reach and connect in with all of the audiences that are following her as well as the audiences that we're looking to connect in with,” Bhandal said.
The one thing I was surprised by is that while Invisalign is making this push into women’s sports, there is very little information about this strategy on Google, which feels like a missed opportunity and maybe why I was taken aback when I heard their name on the panel. While press releases and articles exist about Invisalign’s push into men’s sports, you really need to dig into their social channels to get feel for what they are doing with women athletes.
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