The day after Knicks forward OG Anunoby’s game-winning goal against the San Antonio Spurs sent millions of New Yorkers into euphoria, employees at a baby formula company began discussing what it could mean for their business.
The company, Bobbie, is not based in New York. And it has no connection to basketball. It doesn’t matter.
“If the whole country is excited about the Knicks, then we’re going to talk about the Knicks,” said Angela Hanks, the company’s social media leader.
Bobbie decided to play with the cheeky idea that big sporting events lead to a baby boom nine months later, and created a list of baby names written in a notes app. Names like OG, for Mr. Anunoby; Jalen, for Knicks star Jalen Brunson; and Townsend, for center Karl-Anthony Towns. The post got 500 percent more engagement than one of the company’s typical Instagram posts.
Bobbie is one of many brands that have joined the Knicks during the team’s championship run: posting memes, changing their avatars to blue and orange, and cheering on the team in their social media captions.
Some of these companies are national brands based in New York. Others simply saw the opportunity to be part of a trendy cultural moment. The Knicks have become a shared language, generating a level of relevance that had been missing from the National Basketball Association in recent years.
The Knicks’ growing popularity has been amplified not only by the team’s play but also by their celebrity following such as Taylor Swift and Timothée Chalamet.
This year’s final was the most watched on television since 1998, the year Michael Jordan won his last championship, with an average of 20.6 million viewers. Championship merchandise sales set an all-sports record for Fanatics, the league’s merchandise partner.
On social media, posts about the championship series generated 15 billion views, three times more than last year’s finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Our engagement stats are off the charts for everything Knicks-related right now,” said Doug Sweeny, chief marketing officer at Oura, a maker of wearable fitness devices.
Oura is an official sponsor of the Knicks. But many of the brands that produce Knicks-related content have no relationship with the team, including Chili’s, Hill House and chickpea pasta company Banza.
Several brands, including probiotic soda company Poppi and diaper brand Coterie, posted riffs on a viral poem by a Knicks fan: “My mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian’s Dior, the Knicks in four.” (They adjusted the poem to end with “Knicks at five” once the Spurs won game three of the best-of-seven series.)
Poppi is based in Austin, Texas, about a 90-minute drive from San Antonio, and has an endorsement deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“It was more about following the community they’re in,” said Sophia Sesto, the company’s vice president of culture. “It was driven by the zeitgeist and fandom..”
Coterie, founded in New York, proposed variations of the poem in its internal communication channels. His post read: “My dry baby, his Coterie diaper, the game, live, Knicks in five.” It got four times more engagement than the average company post.
“More than 43 percent of our new customers come from word of mouth, so the kind of shareability that comes with some of this engagement is really powerful,” said Brittany Deems, senior brand director at Coterie.
Cosmetic brands Milk Makeup and Glossier used Knicks-related content to emphasize their New York roots. The New York brand works with Glossier customers who are not in New York, said Nicole Solórzano, the company’s marketing director.
“New York for us is a state of mind,” Solórzano said.
Being a New York brand is part of what made the Knicks’ story break out, said Beth Egan, an advertising professor at Syracuse’s Newhouse School. He said the team’s underdog history and penchant for comebacks also resonated widely.
“But I think the most important thing is that there are very few things in this country today that are not politicized,” he said. “Brands have to be very careful what they talk about these days. It’s a story that seemed to touch everyone’s hearts, so it was easy for brands to get on board.”
Still, not everyone loves the Knicks.
Duolingo, a language learning app with a bold green bird as its logo, caught wind of this fact when it published a “Knicks on Four” post. The team lost the next game and Spurs fans flooded the comments.
“We had a lot of engagement after the game ended, basically saying, ‘Well, this didn’t age well,'” said Kat Chen, senior director of brand management at Duolingo, who added that the Knicks references were driven by fans in her New York office. “And we pinned a comment that said, ‘Knicks on five.’ You know, we’re not car fans.”
After the Knicks won Game 4 on Mr. Anunoby’s shot, the brand posted an image that read, “Knicks fans tonight,” with photos of its mascot bird and Mr. Anunoby. Beneath Anunoby’s face were words that captured the relief that die-hard Knicks fans felt at the end of that game: “Thank you for saving my life.”
