Fiction reveals the truth, as the saying goes, and though the Netflix sports comedy series Running Point is only partially based on a true story, its first season depicting Sephora’s all-in push into the basketball world is very real.
The series, which stars Kate Hudson as the president of her family’s pro basketball team, features the makeup retailer in an elaborate plotline involving an initially contentious jersey-patch sponsorship for the men’s team, complete with scenes in a Sephora store and a character meant to be one of the brand’s top marketers.
Sephora’s real-life CMO, Zena Arnold, doesn’t appear in the series, but she said it’s true that the company’s marketing efforts have increasingly focused on sports this year, starting with the brand’s partnership with women’s 3-on-3 basketball league Unrivaled that was announced in January.
“We just saw incredible engagement and commentary from our community, and the broader sports community, for us being there,” Arnold told Marketing Brew. “So we said, ‘Okay, this is something that’s working well. How can we expand upon this?’”
Glamour shot
So far, Sephora’s investment into the sport has taken the form of partnerships with the two newest WNBA’s newest teams, as well as the Netflix cameo, the timing of which was purely coincidental, according to Arnold.
A week after Sephora US announced a multiyear deal with Unrivaled to kick off the year and the league’s inaugural season, Sephora Canada became the first founding partner of the Toronto Tempo, the newest WNBA expansion team that’s set to start playing next year. The sponsorships are part of a broader effort from the brand to show up as an authority on beauty across different cultural touchpoints, ranging from sports to music to entertainment, Arnold said, which has come out of a marketing partnerships team that was formed last year.
“One of the key things that I saw as a big opportunity for us was to be more involved in conversation, not just advertising,” Arnold told us. “Women’s sports specifically, it’s just a really exciting, fun place to be right now.”
Sephora shot its shot in basketball in particular because of its growing popularity, the sport’s appeal to Sephora’s core consumers, and the “energy from existing players,” Arnold added. While Sephora declined to share specific numbers, Arnold said the partnership with Unrivaled, which includes a glam room at the league’s facility in Miami and branding on the court and in the player arrival hall, has resulted in strong media value and social engagement, especially on pregame fit checks and tunnel-walk content.
Close to home
Arnold said she hoped to differentiate Sephora by supporting Unrivaled’s mission to up the ante on salaries in women’s sports. By sponsoring the Tempo, a deal led by Sephora’s Canada team, the brand is aiming to achieve broad reach across the country, given the Tempo is Canada’s first and only WNBA team.
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“Though they are Toronto-based, they’re a bit of Canada’s team, and the entire country is rooting for and behind them,” she said. “It’s a great way for our teams there to be able to activate.”
Exactly three months after the Tempo deal was announced, Sephora US was named a founding partner of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA expansion team set to play their first preseason game in the league May 6. That team is close to home for Sephora US, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
A key component of the Valkyries deal is the naming rights to the team’s new performance center in Oakland, a rare opportunity for a brand to get the rights to a venue designed specifically for a women’s team. Historically, women’s teams are often relegated to venues built with men’s sports in mind, but purpose-built practice facilities and venues for women’s leagues like the WNBA and NWSL are becoming increasingly common.
“It’s a really important and growing part of support of women’s sports,” Arnold said. “For us to be a part of that story, of bringing that opportunity and equality for women’s sports, was really powerful.”
Point guard
In the world of scripted TV, though, Arnold and the brand team can’t take credit for the Running Point plotline. Co-creator Mindy Kailing and the show’s other creators and writers approached Sephora with the sponsorship story in mind, Arnold said, but it wasn’t a hard sell. “We’re really proud that we were able to be a part of it,” she said.
Things aren’t always smooth sailing for Sephora in the show, which involves a negative reaction from one of the players on the men’s team when the brand’s logo debuts on its jerseys. It’s a plotline that resonates in real life, too, Arnold told us.
“I think that for a long time, sports and makeup were not seen as being congruous,” she said, adding that things are changing as sports fans develop more of a desire to know about athletes’ lives off the court.
Sephora is “still in learning mode” when it comes to sports sponsorships, but the retailer is exploring other opportunities across entertainment, including in sports content, according to Arnold. Already, the brand has sponsored a live taping of Angel Reese’s Unapologetically Angel podcast. Any involvement in men’s sports, though, will be limited to Running Point— at least for now.
“We’ll see about a men’s sponsorship,” Arnold said. “We’re just starting, so we gotta get through a few things and learn a little bit more, but never say never.”