JI BRUST
TL;DR
This work demonstrates that brand building doesn’t just happen during the campaign launch – it’s a layered, year-round effort that requires cultural foresight, media discipline and relentless consistency. When done right it doesn’t just elevate the partner, it lifts the entire brand.
My Role
Primary contributor in evolving our Icon strategy. Led the assessment of AE1 campaign impact and translated learnings into a cross-category framework.
With the guidance of Sr. Manager, worked cross functionally with sport verticals to socialize these strategic shifts.
Skills
Brand Building
Strategic Foresight
Sports Marketing - Icon Partnerships
Background
&
Business Challenge
The brand had consistently relied on high-profile partners to spark temporary attention and product interest. While our campaigns with athletes drove impressive short-term spikes, the brand heat wasn’t sticking.
We were facing a brand association problem. Despite having some of the most magnetic icons in sport, the way we activated around them wasn’t translating into long-term perception or brand affinity.
My hypothesis: We needed to move from reactive, campaign-based storytelling to sustained, identify-driven brand building around our partners.
Approach
After a year-long high-impact campaign with Anthony Edwards, I conducted a deep dive into performance signals beyond the campaign window – examining:
Social/earned media lift
Search interest and brand queries
Category-level awareness and sentiment
Product sell-through and brand halo effect
I noticed a pattern: the campaign created a flashpoint, but when we didn’t continue the story, attention and association dropped off quickly.
Key Insights
Consistency creates recognition
Our icons need a recognizable visual identity across all channels – colors, fonts, taglines, audio signatures – to strengthen recall and attribution.
It’s not just about doing more; its about being distinctive in a disciplined way.
Bread crumbing builds mindshare
Year round, intentional storytelling builds mental availability – not just for the partner, but for the brand and product ecosystems they touch.
Even small, sustained moments of visibility contributed to category-level awareness and conversion.
The key: building the perception that we’re there throughout the journey, not just when they win.
Charismatic partners can drive organic brand heat
While competitors like Nike dominate category visibility through league sponsorships, media and a large portfolio of athletes, our icons – like Anthony Edwards – created buzz through sheer cultural gravity.
By amplifying their personalities and allowing space for storytelling, we could PUNCH ABOVE OUR WEIGHT in noisy markets like US Football, Basketball and Soccer.
Results
Developed a repeatable framework/playbook for how to maximize long-term brand value from athlete partnerships
Influenced the creation of a partner attribution tool (in collaboration with global teams) to measure lift in brand association more accurately
Saw a +8% lift in awareness and a +4% increase in category favorability in the AE1 campaign period – with halo effects into footwear sales.
Sparked leadership-level conversation and action: a new cross-functional ICON task force is currenlty being developed to own this strategy going forward
Learnings
Shifted the org’s mindset from campaign-first to long-term brand building
Drove alignment across categories, where teams were more accustomed to short-term flighting cycles in silos
Helping leadership see the value of narrative continuation and attribution models to track long-tail impact
Advocated for a task force to manage icon strategy – moving away from one-off usage toward strategic planning