Kenda Elevates Sports Marketing to New Heights with Cavaliers Championship

Kenda USA, the US subsidiary of renowned tire manufacturer, Kenda Tire definitely has a knack for picking winners in the sports world. The company backed professional golfer, Ben Curtis, from Stow, Ohio, when he was relatively unknown, but he then went on to win the British Open. In a similar move, it chose to sponsor NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013 before LeBron James rejoined the basketball team. At the time, Kenda said it picked the Cavaliers on the basis of its strong core of young players. Though they did not perform well in that year, the return of LeBron in 2014 bosted the confidence of the core young players and they reached the NBA finals in 2015. This year, they won the NBA Championship trophy, totally rewriting the reputation of sports teams from Cleveland and giving Kenda USA yet another winning partnership.

Kenda has a good track record when it comes to leveraging its sports partnerships. For example, Kenda had very high levels of exposure through court-side signage when the Cavaliers hosted its first Chinese New Year Celebration game at the team’s home arena, the Q. The game was broadcast to millions of fans on a worldwide basis through FOX Sports Ohio, NBA League Pass and CCTV in China and had signage with a special New Year’s Greeting in Mandarin. The game was broadcast to millions of fans all around the world on NBA League Pass and CCTV in China, and locally on FOX Sports Ohio.

In addition to these sponsorships, Kenda also supports other NBA teams, college sports and professional golfers. The company was the corporate sponsor of the Ohio State University football team when they won the national championship in 2014.