Marketing Ace — A’ja Wilson Enlisted To Score Points And Ticket Sales For Las Vegas’ WNBA Team
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
She’s the undisputed primary marketing face of the WNBA Las Vegas Aces, number 22 on the Mandalay Bay Events Center basketball court who is a 22-year-old with the athletic gift of adroitly powering her way to a basketball hoop and the endearing personality gift of discussing serious pay gap issues between men and woman in one moment and then her love for Trollis sour gummy worm candy in the next.
A’ja Wilson, already a decorated and popular WNBA Rookie-of-the-Year and All-Star, is now in her second year with the Aces, emerging as a marketing powerhouse and nationally-recognizable figure for the team that will begin its second year in Las Vegas later this spring. May 26 is the season opener for the Aces when they host the Los Angeles Sparks at Mandalay Bay Events Center.
The six-foot, four-inch Wilson with a feathery left-handed shot on the court and a whimsical, sometimes-goofy demeanor off it, has been showing up practically everywhere — from serving as a judge at the NBA All-Star game dunk contest in Charlotte, NC in February to being an Aces ambassador close to home at a Vegas Golden Knights game where she cranked the siren to start a period to being on the field for the Las Vegas Aviators’ first game at their luxurious new $150 million ballpark in Summerlin April 9. In the photos below, Wilson hung out with Golden Knights hard-hitting forward Ryan Reaves at the Manny Pacquaio-Adrien Broner boxing match weigh-in at MGM Grand Garden Arena in January and was at the Aviators’ home-opener earlier this month.
She might be only 22, but Wilson has firmly grasped the impact she has on young girls as a role model and the power of her platform as one of the WNBA’s biggest new stars and the Aces’ most recognizable player and personality. Wilson has scored Mountain Dew and Nike endorsements — plus, her dancing skills (on display on the court at times) could easily be woven into a social media or TV product promotion spot. Wilson’s agent, Lindsay Colas of Los Angeles-based Wasserman sports marketing agency, works on lining up more off-court work for Wilson. Wilson’s website focuses on inspiring, empowering and engaging.
In a Southern Nevada market growing more crowded with sports options, the secret sauce behind Wilson’s marketing appeal is that she can reach potential new Aces fans in Las Vegas because of a multi-faceted personality that transcends the basketball court. Aces President Christine Monjer said Wilson has the personality to turn simple messages into popular social media posts. And guess who will be part of the Aces’ first bobblehead?
“Where A’ja becomes a bit of a secret weapon is on camera and in our social media outreach. She has the kind of personality that makes you feel like you have known her forever even if you have never met her, and that really comes to life on video. She has the ability to turn a simple message like ‘the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game is coming to Las Vegas,’ into an endearing social media post that will viewed and shared thousands of times over,” Monjer said.
“A’ja is going to be a part of our first Aces-themed bobblehead, which commemorates her rookie of the year season. Not only does it feature A’ja decked out in her Aces uniform, but it includes her leg sleeve and the pearls which she is so famous for wearing (not on the court obviously),” she said.
As far as the team’s marketing goes, Monjer will also rely on Wilson’s fellow All-Star on the Aces, sharp-shooting guard Kayla McBride, and guard Kelsey Plum. “We will utilize just about all of our returning players in one way or another in our marketing materials, but we have focused quite a bit on our Big Three of A’ja, Kayla McBride and Kelsey Plum. During the offseason we have been running marquees featuring our two 2018 All-Stars, A’ja and Kayla, on our MGM properties. We have used multiple player images on ticket brochures and other sales collateral. Billboards are just now cropping up around the greater Las Vegas area as well.”
Wilson has a sense of the influence of her outreach — and a sense of what are powerful messages. For example, she adored the recent Dwyane Wade retirement Budweiser commercial, which showed his mother and other people he touched giving Wade important items of signed clothing that showed the NBA basketball star had a sensitivity to understand life is bigger than the basketball court.
“I watched the ad and it brought me to tears,” Wilson said.
Wilson is reaching out because she knows her social media has power. She said she gets 50 emails a day on Instagram, and she allows her day-to-day manager, Jade-Li English, to handle the A’ja Wilson Facebook account.
Her A’ja Wilson Foundation focuses on bringing awareness to helping students with learning disabilities and bullying and she also started an AAU team in Columbia, South Carolina — her home state.
But around the country, Wilson is also known for speaking out on pay disparity between men and women basketball players, tweeting about the women athletes’ pay inequality after NBA star LeBron James signed a $153.3 million contract to play for the Lakers last summer. A recent Charlotte Observer story on Wilson mentioned the tweet.
“I struck gold with that one,” Wilson mused to LVSportsBiz.com. “The money is there now. Can we get it? We work hard for it. We deserve it. It brought awareness to the pay gap.”
Again, Wilson had one eye off the court with the issue: “Women are always cut short in pay. If it’s there, why can’t we get it?”
Wilson and her public stand about women’s pay equality apparently caught James’ and Essence magazine’s attention because Essence published in September 2018 a social campaign photo collection of 16 women leaders as part of James’ 16th Nike sneaker release. Wilson was among the 16 black women entertainers, athletes, journalists and executives featured in the photos. Here’s her photo from Essence after Wilson’s agent alerted her about being included in the photo shoot that showed the mother, wife and daughter of James; tennis superstar Serena Williams, fellow WNBA star Maya Moore and star gymnast Simone Biles.
Essence described her as “the rookie with a voice.”
It was a voice that stirred public discussions about equity issues surrounding wage issues of men and women. WNBA players receive salaries in the $50,000 to $112,000 range to play the 34-game season. The average NBA salary is $6.4 million, the highest in sports, and the team salary cap is $99 million.
Wilson drew some social media grief from people commenting about her pay gap tweet. It also gave her a sense of how far her voice carries.
“I want to listen to what people have to say. I don’t mean any harm,” Wilson said. “I’m human. I have feelings, too. You don’t know me and we should keep it classy.”
Later in the interview, LVSportsBiz.com saw another side of Wilson, the young woman who is only 22, quick to smile and adores her Trolli sour gummy worms. In her dream TV commercial, Wilson envisions herself walking down a street without a care in the world munching her beloved Trolli sour worms while the “world is going nuts.”
“That’s my happy place,” she said with a satisfied smile.
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