Professional Sports Team Branding: KW Titans

Professional sports teams contribute a lot to their communities, and their branding can be a source of pride and bragging rights for their fans. Get it right and teams have a network of authentic ambassadors who willingly wear their team’s gear and merch, building brand awareness and hype. Get it wrong, and even with quality play, you might find it challenging to find it anywhere off the field, court, or rink and be facing an uphill battle to gain support.  

The Backstory

KW Titans is a professional basketball team in Waterloo Region, offering quality basketball that is a step below NBA level. Players have come from across North American to play for the past 10 seasons, delivering a fast paced, winning game experience.  

Traditionally thought of as hockey towns, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge have each been growing in population and diversity, bringing an expanded love to a growing number of sports. There has specifically been growing popularity of basketball within the region with local representation in the NBA/NCAA, but game attendance isn’t growing at the same rate and ownership was struggling to get more people aware of the team and come to games.

What was working, what was not

Reviewing everything Titans, the team is doing everything that you think they should be.

• High quality coaches and players
• Finished in the top 3 past two seasons
• Lively in-game entertainment (announcers, DJ, half-time shows)
• Active on social media sharing game and team updates
• Radio and billboard advertising
• After game player interactions for fans
• Consistent branding across touchpoints
• Out at community events

But there are a few things being done (or not done) that have limited their reach and appeal.

• An overly ‘safe’, family approach that doesn’t provide any opportunities for any edginess in ads, merch or other materials
• A lack of marketing that creates hype and a desire to go and check out a game (and gain fans!)
• A varsity look and feel that doesn’t represent the quality of the game being delivered 
• Branding assets and colour palette that provide elements that stand out in the continuous scroll
• Limited community engagement off the court, (missing demographic groups)
• Sponsorship partners that reach missing demographic groups
• The website had competing messages with no clear CTA to buy game tickets 
• The need for stronger relationships with sports media and tourism 

So with this, Studio Locale began working with the Titans to build up brand recognition, appeal to a larger base, and ultimately get more people coming to games. 

Rebranding a team needs to be authentic to the sport, the culture, and the fans. Knowing this, we started there – interviewing the players, coaches and talking with fans about the level of ball being delivered, and what was missing when it came to the energy of the branding. 

The Rebrand

The new branding created a revived energy for the whole team. Management, coaches, players, and fans all felt a jolt of excitement and anticipation for the new season. 

The rebrand reveal was combined with the season launch event and included players, city officials, media and VIP fans. Carefully crafted, it included a launch video along with a Q&A around the rebrand and what people can expect for the upcoming season. 

The new branding is appearing all across the region, at The Aud, on billboards, buses, and most importantly on fans! Special merch offers for season ticket holders and existing fans is getting it out on the streets and building hype for others to get out and watch the team’s 9th season of pro ball. Everyone’s getting ready to Lock In, Titan Up!