Olympic synchronized divers team up for winning marketing play

The GIST: Parity, the sponsorship platform dedicated to connecting brands with women athletes, helped land an especially delicious brand deal last week. Last Wednesday, the Minnesota Pork Board announced that synchronized diving duo Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon are joining Team Pork with the hashtag #CooknBacon.

• “Pardon the pun, but their sizzling hashtag is proving irresistible to brands with a relevant product or storyline,” Parity CEO Leela Srinivasan told The GIST on Sunday. “Kassidy and Sarah will be #CooknBacon for years to come and, since they train in Minneapolis, this partnership made sense all around.”

The partnership: As Team Pork’s newest members, the athletes will engage with social media followers, appear at community events, and make appearances on behalf of Minnesota Pork. Cook and Bacon will also promote pork products as part of the sponsorship.

• The Minnesota Pork Board can benefit from the two divers’ social media reach, with Cook’s 109K Instagram followers and Bacon’s 17K giving the Pork Board’s 3K-account some added fat.

The alignment: The pair boast perfect names for a sponsorship like this, but finding the right partner was key. Clever pun-inspired athlete marketing has seen success in the NIL space, where Iowa Pork Producers Association signed a similar deal with four Iowa State football players whose last names spelled “Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon.” And that’s not even Decoldest example.

• Food brand partnerships with Olympic athletes are a tried and true advertising tradition (think Wheaties), but synchronized diving doesn’t generally have the biggest star names.

• Srinivasan called this diving deal a “fun example of organizations leaning into a more diverse array of athletes,” noting that Parity helps brands “look beyond the usual suspects” in athlete partnerships. So much to savor.