How air-care company Blueair upped Instagram views by more than 1,000%

There was something in the air at Madison Square Garden during the NBA Finals this year…Or should we say, a lack of something.

Blueair, an air-care company that sells products like air purifiers and humidifiers, announced a partnership with the New York Knicks in mid-March, about a month before the end of the NBA regular season. Lara Kerbaj, Blueair’s chief marketing and growth officer, knew the team hadn’t won a championship since 1973 but—since New York teams tend to have particularly high cultural cachet—she felt comfortable signing mid-season anyway.

“We knew that the hype would really help us drive the brand where we want to be,” Kerbaj told Marketing Brew on the day the Knicks paraded through Lower Manhattan, celebrating their first NBA championship in more than half a century. “Now, it’s an amazing story that we can say we have our purifiers in their training centers…I’m not saying it’s the air, but I’m not saying it’s not the air that’s helped them win.”

Get your Knicks

Blueair is relatively new to sports partnerships, having debuted in the space by signing pro tennis player Jessica Pegula in January. But between the brand’s work with Pegula and the Knicks, including guard Josh Hart, its Instagram views and follower count, as well as its website visits, have skyrocketed this year, so Kerbaj is looking to build on the strategy.

About a year ago, the Blueair team was looking to get involved with celebrity partnerships to help grow the brand, Kerbaj said. They looked into actors first, but that group lacked a clear connection to the product, she told us. That’s how they landed on athletes, who tend to be obsessed with health and performance.

Pegula was already a Blueair user when the team connected with her, Kerbaj said, making her a natural choice.

Even though Pegula is ranked No. 4 in the world, “she’s not the most famous tennis player,” Kerbaj said.

“We didn’t want someone who had already done a million brands and a million collabs,” she added. “She was more our authentic entry into sports.”

Kerbaj said she also wanted a sports partnership that would offer more reach and cultural pull, which essentially equates to the NBA in the eyes of many sports marketers. Since Blueair is headquartered in New York, “we spoke to almost every basketball team in the city,” Kerbaj said, and the Knicks fit the bill in terms of global scale and pop-culture relevance.

After working with Pegula, Kerbaj said she knew she wanted an athlete deal to bolster the team partnership and “bring it to life.” Similar to Pegula, Hart isn’t the absolute biggest name. But he does have a good sense of humor and a wife and two kids, making him a solid choice for a brand that targets families, Kerbaj said.

Hart filmed his campaign with Blueair in mid-May, and the marketing team worked quickly to get it up, not knowing how much longer the Knicks’ postseason run would last.

“We were like, ‘Okay, worst case, we use it for a week,’” Kerbaj said.

Get some air

By the postseason, Blueair had already been running social, CTV, and out-of-home ads, according to Kerbaj, and activated at MSG with a suite and product displays during the Knicks’ April 9 game against the Boston Celtics, but “we got extremely lucky” that the Knicks made it all the way to the finals, she said.

“We could have finished in April, which would have been disastrous, because…we signed in February,” she said.

Instead of disaster, Blueair has seen its Instagram views rise from 600,000 to 7 million per month this year, a 1,067% increase, and its follower count increased by 38% from 36,000 at the end of last year to 50,000 as of May, according to the company. Website visits are also up 18% from 391,000 to 462,000 a month since the brand got into sports sponsorships this year.

That’s not entirely due to the Knicks. Blueair revamped its brand strategy last year to lean more into health and wellness, and it was Pegula’s campaign that “kicked off a lot of this social growth,” but activating at MSG “was a big moment which got us a lot of traction [and] a lot of people talking about us,” Kerbaj said.

Going forward, she said she’s definitely sticking with tennis, and currently focusing on content for Wimbledon and the US Open with Pegula. Kerbaj also said she’s hoping to continue working with Hart, as well as within the NBA space. She hasn’t locked in on any particular league or team yet, but added that women’s soccer is on her radar.

“This year just really opened doors for us to continue to have conversations,” she said. “I get like 10 emails per day for a new partnership, so the team [and I] are just really exploring what are the best ones to continue this moment. We got really lucky this year with the Knicks.”