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Puma fast tracks mobile with comprehensive theScore sponsorship

Puma hits a triple play with a new comprehensive sponsorship on mobile sports application theScore that includes custom content, engagement and ecommerce.

The casual and athletic footwear brand has teamed up with theScore, which provides real-time sports news, scores and stats, for its ?Forever Faster? campaign in a program that includes sponsored push alerts, one of the first examples of video-enabled native ads on the platform and an integration with WhatsApp. The partnership will enable Puma to fine-tune its targeting to reach fans of specific athletes and sports.

?That [native ad] unit is seamless within the stream,? said Ethan Ross, senior vice president of sales at theScore. ?It occurs after every few stories. 

?It blends in perfectly with what?s snackable and what mobile content is all about,? he said. ?The access to the user to the information quickly from within the screen is perfect so Puma fits in very well with that unit versus the standard banners. 

?In this campaign, it is all high-impact rich media units. In the news stream there is no standard banner, there is just the native unit, so it is much more high impact.?

Real-time push alerts
Users of theScore app will see branded custom content and an expandable rich media banner ad unit in the Top News, football, golf and soccer sections of the app.

Users will also see sponsored real-time push alerts for breaking news, player stats and scores.

Video-enabled native ads are appearing in the app?s news feed.

The sponsored content is shareable via social networks as well as via popular messaging app WhatsApp.

The campaign, which kicked off Aug. 7 and runs through Dec. 31, is focused on several athletes: sprinter Usain Bolt, football running back Jamaal Charles and number one draft pick Jadeveon Clowney, Italian soccer star Mario Balotelli and golfer Rickie Fowler. It was created in conjunction with Zenith.

On-the-go fans
Puma previously worked with sports app Foap on a a time-sensitive mobile photo-sharing global contest that gave soccer fans an opportunity to share photos in exchange for winning cash for their uploads (see story).

The brand joins several others in partnering with theScore.

For example, fitness brand Muscle Milk recently used mobile advertising in theScore to hit a group of sports fans during the National Collegiate Athletic Association?s March Madness basketball tournament (see story). 

Last summer,  Jack Link?s Beef Jerky targeted baseball fans via theScore mobile application (see story). 

Partnering with theScore gives Puma a way to reach sports fans on-the-go with real-time information about their favorite athletes and sports.

?We have a content and editorial team and that is very unique and specifically writes for mobile,? Mr. Ross said.

?We created two avenues of custom content,? he said. ?One is about athletes on their roster and the other is training camps around these athletes,? he said.

?This content lives in a expandable rich media unit, the other a native unit in our news stream throughout the app.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York