LA Tech Darling Honey Will Adorn Clippers Jerseys This Year
Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.
The Los Angeles Clippers, owned by former Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, is stitching a new logo on game jerseys this year. Los Angeles' tech darling Honey will appear on the basketball team's uniform as part of a partnership inked last fall.
The deal allows Honey, the L.A.-based online shopping and discount platform, to advertise overseas and share team content on its digital and social media platforms.
"We look at our last six years since Steve Ballmer bought the team as sort of a restart of the Clippers built around those same principles of toughness and grittiness, determination," said Clippers sales officer Scott Sonnenberg. "That's the type of players we have on the court and that's the type of brand that Honey is."
Honey already had its name on practice jerseys and the Clippers' new training center. The company also led a $10 ticket campaign for home games during the 2019-2020 season.
It's the Clippers' second major corporate partner after dating site Bumble. The NBA was the first major U.S. sports company to let teams display partners on player jerseys, a decision Sonnenberg described as groundbreaking.
The Clippers have tried to position themselves as tech leaders within the NBA with their AI-powered Clippers CourtVision platform, a software program that overlays player stats and animated graphics over live games.
Earlier this year another L.A. startup, the sneaker seller GOAT, tried to tap consumers in the profitable NBA market launching their first television campaign during the NBA playoffs.
Founded in 2012, Honey offers a free platform that notifies users about price drops and tracks the lowest prices on items listed across ecommerce sites. It was acquired by PayPal last yeast for $4 billion.
Starting Friday, the browser extension will offer discount codes to fans who purchase Clippers gear on the shopping platform.
Even though stadiums are shuttered to paying fans, sales of merchandise have remained steady through the pandemic, said Sonnenberg. NBA fans streaming games online are still exposed to brand partnerships.
"Honey's a great match for us," he said. "Their entrepreneurial spirit, their toughness, their grittiness."
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Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.
