The Dallas Mavericks Have a New Owner
No, Mark Cuban is still the principal owner for the Dallas Mavericks and there are no signs of him selling the team anytime soon. Well, not until Luka Doncic retires. Over the last couple of weeks, the Dallas Mavericks marketing team has been working in collaboration with Mark Cuban Experiments in creating a new voice and face of the franchise: Mavrello Ballovic. The backstory for Mavrello is an interesting one. According to the anthropomorphic basketball, he was one of the original co-founders of the franchise but has been trapped in a bunker for the last 30 years below the rubble of Reunion Arena, and to free himself he had to rely on digging himself free with a plastic spork. Words do not do justice to Mavrello’s appearance and distinct Baltic accent. Behold his beauty for yourself below:
When Mavrello made his debut on Twitter Mavs fans were not sure what to make of the new “owner” of their favorite franchise. Fans were confused as to why this is happening. Most either rejected or ignored his existence. However, it seems as though some of the more vocal fans on social media have changed their tune. Embracing the weirdness that has arrived, well as long as the Mavs are winning. To win over some of the most influential MFFLs over he held an AMA (Ask Mavrello Anything) yesterday on Twitter. In the hour-long session engaging with fans, he was able to establish a persona and create an opportunity for fans to get to know him and his purpose with the franchise.
In a recent press release, Mark Cuban stated that the birth of Mavrello was conceived as a tactic to market towards Gen Z and to create an opportunity to interact with the organization directly. Can this experiment pay off? With the growth of AR on social media ranging from filters on TikTok & Snapchat to even computer-generated influencers with millions of followers on Instagram, it’s not completely ludicrous to believe that it can. Recently, Mavrello has been featured in content with Mark Cuban as well as fan-favorite players such as Boban Marjanovic and Luka Doncic. With the MVP candidate, Doncic tweeting a video to his more than 1.2 million followers.
Mark Cuban is always trying to push the envelope with the Mavericks and this may be hands down the most unique way of marketing new fans.