Sports drink BodyArmor unveils first TV ad with Kobe Bryant at the helm
BodyArmor, a relatively new player in the sports drink market, has unveiled its first ever television ad campaign, and at the helm of its creative direction is former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant.
Bryant is a huge investor in BodyArmor, having plunked down millions through his Kobe Inc investment company, making him the third largest shareholder. He has deals with plenty of top-ranked athletes in all the major sports to help push the drink out to the public, and nine of them are in this first campaign.
The campaign, ‘Obsession is Natural,’ is inspired by Bryant’s hard-driving philosophy towards anything he does, whether that’s the NBA or a national brand campaign, and features Andrew Luck, Anthony Rizzo, Dez Bryant, Dustin Johnson, James Harden, Kristaps Porzinigis, Mike Trout and Skylar Diggins.
For Bryant, this marks his debut in national brand storytelling after retiring from the NBA. The national spot will air during James Harden’s first NBA playoff game on TNT on April 19. The spot was written, directed and narrated by Bryant, but each BodyArmor athlete (many of whom are investors) also has his or her own video – and worked with Kobe to develop their individual scripts for their video’s voiceover narration.
BodyArmor bills itself as a “better-for-you hydration option to traditional sports drinks”, with more electrolytes, vitamins and potassium and lower in sodium and naturally flavored and colored.
The first spot shows all the athletes training their hardest in black and white, with a voiceover that says: “There’s only one thing that separates the bad from the good. The good from the great. The greats from the legends. Just one thing. Obsession.” Only the bottles the athletes drink from are in vibrant color. It is tagged with the hashtag #ObsessionIsNatural.