App-based online marketplace Wish.com will reportedly be spending as much as $14 million per year on a marketing deal with the Los Angeles Lakers that includes putting the Wish logo on the team’s jerseys.
Wish.com’s logo will be featured on Lakers jerseys beginning in the 2017-18 season, starting with the Lakers’ first preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sept. 30. Wish.com’s logo will be on a patch stitched onto the front left shoulder of each jersey, opposite the existing Nike logo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the Los Angeles Times reports that Wish is paying the Lakers up to $14 million per year.
According to the Lakers, the sponsorship will include “a large-scale integrated marketing program,” as well as partnerships on community initiatives in Los Angeles and the surrounding counties.
Wish.com CEO Peter Szulczewski says the online marketplace wants to use the sponsorship to engage with Lakers fans in a variety of ways, but declined to provide a lot of details. “Would rather not announce the specifics yet, but we plan on doing free gifts and special offers for anyone watching in the arena and possibly on T.V. as well,” he says.
Szulczewski says he sees the Lakers sponsorship as a way to connect Wish.com with a time-honored, instantly recognized global brand.
“Lakers are an iconic everlasting brand,” Szulczewski says. “Here at Wish we aspire to become an everlasting brand ourselves and I think we can learn a lot about doing so from the Lakers. Lakers are a global brand with fans all around the world just like Wish. Lakers’ fans are extremely passionate about their team and we feel the same thing from Wish consumers.”
In addition to all that, Szulczewski says, the two organizations seem to have a similar outlook. “We got along really well from the get-go, it was clear that we were are aligned,” he says.
Asked whether Wish.com is considering other sports sponsorship, Szulczewski says Wish.com is evaluating a lot of opportunities. But at this point, he says, the company’s focus is on the getting the Lakers sponsorship off the ground and preparing internally for the upcoming holiday season.
Social media postings connected to the deal have already appeared on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and Instagram. Examples are below.
Mike Trudell sits down with Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski to discuss the Lakers jersey patch partnership with Wish https://t.co/YzxdFwaJyo
— LakersTV (@LakersTV) September 21, 2017
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According to Crunchbase, Wish.com has raised more than $1 billion across six rounds of funding to date.
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