CeraVe today (Oct. 6) has been named the official skincare and hair care partner of the NBA, per details shared with Marketing Dive. The L’Oréal-owned brand will promote the partnership, which incorporates experiential and digital activations, with a social-first teaser phase that’s inline with its other culture-hacking marketing efforts.
The partnership brings together the primary dermatologist-recommended skincare brand in the U.S., per survey data cited by CeraVe, and the sports league that is probably the most-digitally engaged in the U.S. — two “powerhouses” with diverse audiences and fans, said Jasteena Gill, vp of promoting at CeraVe U.S.
“Something that we have prided ourselves on is that we have all the time been in a position to step outside the traditional skincare box and capture moments of culture and be at the forefront of culture,” the executive said. “The NBA is a testament to how sports can transcend the sports world and impact culture, fashion and skincare, and have a lot influence on people’s lifestyles.”
Along with a “Care For All” philanthropic program that provides dermatology check-ups and skin health education at Jr. NBA clinics, CeraVe will likely be integrated into NBA events like the Emirates NBA Cup and inside video game NBA 2K. The brand has dabbled in gaming as a component of culture that resonates across demographic lines.
“It’s not about coming to life in a more traditional way. It’s about finding our way in and making a world with skincare in the NBA 2K universe,” Gill said. “We’re still working through what that appears like.”
To tease the tie-up, CeraVe will team up with #NBATwitter favorite @NBACentel for the parody account’s first brand partnership. CeraVe may also roll out a takeover of its own social channels with content inspired by NBA cultural moments to encourage speculation and interact with fans. The multi-stage teaser strategy has helped CeraVe amplify campaigns, because it did with its Super Bowl debut in 2024.
“We wish to flip the script on how make things come to life,” Gill said. “We’re going to begin to activate with players and influencers, keeping this socially native.”
Fine-tuning ‘medutainment’
The tie-up grew out of CeraVe’s “Head of CeraVe” campaign that featured NBA All-Star Anthony Davis, alongside WNBA star Paige Beuckers and TikTok personality Charli D’Amelio. The goal was to bring authenticity to an effort around the brand’s anti-dandruff shampoo and conditioner with actual users of the product.
“We saw great interaction and engagement with with the ability to bring an NBA player and CeraVe together with an actual educational insight about dandruff, and likewise having the dermatologist at the heart of that campaign to actually bring that skincare education forward,” Gill said.
Founded in 2005 and bought by L’Oréal in 2017, CeraVe has turn into a $2 billion brand by leaning on its devoted customer base. In the previous couple of years, it has been combining skincare education and social-media-friendly entertainment right into a tactic it calls “medutainment.” Previous efforts along these lines have included one among the best campaigns of Super Bowl LVIII and spoofs of each soap operas and rom-coms.
The success of CeraVe’s digital and social campaigns may be attributed to 2 aspects, Gill explained: starting every campaign with a real consumer insights and finding ways to place actual dermatologists and academic information at the heart of the effort.
“It’s about finding CeraVe in the conversations that [consumers] are organically having, and what matters to them,” Gill said. “How will we be certain that we will make that fun and fascinating, and push ourselves to take into consideration disruptive ways to bring that educational insight through our campaign?”
Read the full article here
