The Shoppe - Curry Brand, Spotify Wrapped & More

December 9, 2020

Welcome back to The Shoppe! This week we’ve been talking about Under Armour’s partnership with Steph Curry, the gaming industry, Spotify Wrapped for Advertisers and more. Be sure to subscribe so you’re up to date on what’s making headlines!

Similar to Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike, Under Armour has announced its offshoot apparel division, Curry Brand, with Stephen Curry. In an effort to help the company gain interest from younger audiences, the brand will focus primarily on basketball and golf apparel, footwear and accessories, but will also include running, training and other sports gear for both men and women.

Welcome back to The Shoppe! This week we’ve been talking about Under Armour’s partnership with Steph Curry, the gaming industry, Spotify Wrapped for Advertisers and more. Be sure to subscribe so you’re up to date on what’s making headlines!

Similar to Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike, Under Armour has announced its offshoot apparel division, Curry Brand, with Stephen Curry. In an effort to help the company gain interest from younger audiences, the brand will focus primarily on basketball and golf apparel, footwear and accessories, but will also include running, training and other sports gear for both men and women.

Additionally, the Curry Brand will be investing in youth sports through partnerships with nonprofit organizations like the Positive Coaching Alliance. The company stated that a percentage of the brand’s yearly revenue will be redistributed into under-resourced communities, working to establish safe spaces to play and support programs that create opportunities for young athletes. Curry Brand is set to launch December 11th, starting with performance basketball shoes.

Within the first half of November, the gaming industry spent over $45M on print, TV and digital ads, following the release of the latest Xbox and PlayStation. Spending over $15M on the promotion of the PS5, Sony has tripled the ad spend of Microsoft for the Xbox Series X|S. Additionally, Ninentdo has boosted their spending by 138% despite not releasing a new console this holiday season. Amid the shutdowns and social restrictions of COVID-19, the gaming industry has seen a 24% increase in consumer spending. Whether big tech companies’ ad spend is partnered with the release of a new console or not, the drive to maintain their positions as the industry’s leaders is clear in their marketing efforts.

Music streaming service, Spotify, has expanded its year end reporting to now cover listening trends by audience. Designed for the advertising community, Spotify 2020 Wrapped for Advertisers details the service’s first party data and provides insights about the behaviors of its users. Readers can view relevant data relating to specific audiences such as food lovers, tech early adopters, fitness enthusiasts and new parents. From what users are listening to, to how they are listening to it, Spotify Wrapped for Advertisers is a great resource for marketers looking to gain better understanding of the latest trends, the platform’s best practices or tips for successfully reaching target audiences. Below are some of the reported trends that we think are important to note.


Desktop listening increased by 26%

Speaker listening increased by 26%

Game console listening increased by 51%

140% increase in listening to news & politics podcasts

81% increase in educational podcasts

201% increase in health podcasts

68% of users 16 to 40 years old have regularly discovered new content by algorithms and online recommendations.

The dating app showcases Satan, played by Ryan Reynolds, matching with a woman named 2020 in the viral advertisement that launched last week. Depicting the couple falling in love, posing for a selfie in front of a dumpster fire, stealing toilet paper and wishing the year would never end, the film pokes fun at a disastrous year while encouraging Match users to try again in 2021. The ad features a new recording of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story,’ with the tagline, “A match made in hell is still a Match.” Produced by Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, the ad has reached over a million views on YouTube and can be viewed here.

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