Male Millennial, Gen-Z Opps: Cleveland Cavaliers promotes top marketer (Score 52)

The Cleveland Cavaliers (CC) promoted Christopher Kaiser to SVP and CMO in June 2022. Kaiser joined CC in 2018 as senior director of marketing before being promoted to marketing VP in 2020. He was the Phoenix Suns' director of marketing and brand strategy prior to that. Kaiser replaces incumbent marketing chief Tracy Marek, who held the role for 19 years. Be sure to keep an eye on this team because Kaiser will likely make some changes to the marketing strategy and may outsource some of his new duties. 

Per Pathmatics, the NBA earned 2.6b impressions YTD through Facebook ads (40%), Instagram ads (31%), desktop display ads (15%), Twitter ads (8%), mobile display ads (3%) and desktop video ads (3%). It placed the majority (94%) of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, reddit.com and twitch.tv. It placed the remainder (6%) indirectly through Yahoo DSP and Display & Video 360 onto sites such as yahoo.com, ticketmaster.com, fandom.com, engadget.com and finance.yahoo.com. It spent approximately $17.8m on digital display ads YTD, a 19% decrease from $21.9m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend jumped from $17.3m in 2020 to $37.3m in 2021. 

According to iSpot, the NBA spent $16m on national TV ads YTD, a 68% increase from $9.5m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend increased significantly from $5.8m in 2020 to $18.3m in 2021. This year, it placed ads during programming such as NBA Basketball, Inside the NBA, NBA Today, PGA Tour Golf and The Equalizer

**The above spend information refers to the NBA.**

Sellers-- The NBA takes care of most national marketing for CC. Both the NBA and CC target male millennial and Gen-Z basketball fans. CC invests in OOH and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. It also utilizes corporate sponsorships. The team will likely start ramping spend up ahead of the 2022-2023 season, which begins in October. Start reaching out to Kaiser soon to see what types of ad space you can provide. 

Agency & martech readers-- While promoted CMOs are less likely to make changes to their agency roster than outside hires, CC is not currently working with any agencies, so you may be able to pick up some of the team's business. Start reaching out to Kaiser soon to be top-of-mind. Be sure to include any professional sports marketing experience you have in your pitches.