Inside Oura’s year of sports marketing

Oura has been circling the sports marketing space for years, but this year, the wearable tech company formed ties with several iconic properties to further cement its presence with increasingly health-conscious fans.

Oura started the year with Olympic-sized partnerships with Team USA and Team Finland and then announced a long-term deal with US Soccer a couple of months later, just in time for the World Cup. By late summer, Oura was diving into its first year as the official wearable of the US Open, and before the tournament had concluded, it also formalized a multiyear sponsorship with reigning World Series champs the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, the New York Knicks, one of Oura’s only formal, consumer-facing sports partnerships prior to this year, won the NBA championship.

While the company’s push into sports sponsorships has been more organic than predetermined, it’s a shift that lines up with increasing sports viewership, team valuations, and a general societal pivot toward healthier living. It also comes at a crucial time for the company: Oura filed for its initial public offering on Monday, targeting a $2.2 billion fundraise, and recently hired longtime sports marketer Julia Cheney from Google to help lead its sports and brand partnerships.

The strategy of teaming up with major teams, leagues, and athletes around the world will continue at Oura heading into the FIFA Women’s World Cup and LA28, according to CMO Doug Sweeny. By working with elite athletes and teams, Sweeny said he hopes to tell brand stories and engage with fans in a way that positions Oura as a leader in the health and wearable tech markets.

“Consumers are so engaged in sport, and I think we’re seeing that as a trend level, culturally, and we want to be a part of it,” Sweeny told Marketing Brew. “We’re not an airline or a credit card. We are on athlete bodies, or a spectator’s body, so…we felt like we should make some really big, strategic moves and cement the relationship with some of these iconic global brands.”

Don’t force the play

The Dodgers sponsorship, which was announced earlier this month, came about naturally; Sweeny said players had been wearing Oura devices, and team trainers were also using Oura products—other than rings, the company also offers software packages that college and pro teams can use to track health metrics. Oura’s sponsorships with the Knicks, US Soccer, and the USTA all came about in similar organic ways, he said.

Just because Oura tends to kick off sponsorship talks with sports organizations that are already familiar with its products doesn’t mean that’s the only requirement before a partnership is formalized. Global reach is key for a lot of the partnerships, Sweeny said. That is evident from existing deals: The Knicks and the Dodgers are known to have some of the most global fanbases in American sports, while the Olympics, World Cup, and US Open have obvious international appeal.

Oura has been looking to expand its presence in the APAC region specifically, Sweeny added.

“We’re trying to engage in properties that have broad, mass, iconic appeal,” he said, adding that the US Open “feels decidedly global,” as does baseball and basketball.

Get active

Oura has struck up relationships with teams like the Seattle Mariners in the past, but they’ve been “more transactional” and focused on trainers and coaches using Oura software than they have been about fan-facing activations, Sweeny said. With some of this year’s partnerships, that’s been changing.

At the US Open, Oura branding was displayed on the towel boxes used by players during matches and on out-of-home ads around New York City; the brand also hosted an on-site fan experience with giveaways, thermal imaging, and a cooling station. Around the same time, Oura also tapped into the running community at the Sydney Marathon.

The Dodgers partnership is similarly fan-oriented, with plans for in-stadium experiences like giveaways and social media content that highlights the team’s strength and conditioning program.

It takes money and manpower to sponsor organizations like governing bodies and championship teams, and Sweeny said Oura plans to continue leaning into sports for at least the next couple of years.

“Our investment in sports has definitely increased, and I don’t [just] mean financially,” he said “To execute pop-ups at the US Open and onboard every athlete that is coming into the US Open for that week, that takes a team…That’ll be the same for LA28…or the Women’s World Cup next year in South America.”