Data & Insights

Big Face Gets Bigger: How Jimmy Butler Promotes His Brand

June 1, 2023 | by

It’s 2023 and Jimmy Butler is once again a major star of the NBA Playoffs. And once again, he’s capitalizing on this national attention to build not only his personal brand, but Big Face Brand too.

In case you missed it, Big Face Brand is Jimmy Butler’s coffee and merchandise company, born out of his $20-a-cup coffee business from the 2020 NBA Bubble. As the story goes, en route to the 2020 NBA Finals in his first season with the Heat, Butler sold high-end coffee out of his hotel room, filling the void of quality coffee options and giving players a place to spend their stipends.

Building on the hype and headlines from the bubble, in 2021 Butler launched his official coffee and apparel business, Big Face Brand. Since then, Jimmy Butler has unsurprisingly been its biggest ambassador. In the world of NBA, where player fashion is often highlighted by teams and the media, Butler frequently appears on social media boarding flights and arriving at arenas carrying coffee and wearing Big Face Brand.

Similar to 2020, the Miami Heat’s 2023 playoff run has provided Jimmy Butler and Big Face tons of added exposure this postseason. Proudly repping his own brand so often, Butler extends the social media reach of his brand far past Big Face Brand’s own channels. Big Face Brand has boosted its Instagram following by nearly 20% this playoffs, but with only 86K followers it’s visibility still pales in comparison to the exposure Jimmy Butler’s social media and posts of Butler from the Heat, NBA and major media outlets give Big Face Brand. 

Jimmy Butler Shows Off His Brand

Since joining the Heat in 2019 and making the playoffs every year since, Jimmy Butler’s notoriety has boomed, and these playoffs certainly continued that trend. Since April 1st, the Heat superstar has gained over 912 thousand new Instagram followers, an 11% increase that puts him at more than 8.9 million followers on IG alone.

During the playoffs, J-But has posted 19 times on Instagram, earning more than 64.1M impressions, 6.82M engagements and $6.78M in social value. Of those 19 posts, seven of them feature the Big Face Brand in some way. Whether it be a playful pre-playoff video about style, or a post-ECF championship carousel featuring his Big Face tunnel fit, Jimmy Butler seamlessly and authentically integrates the brand into his content.

The Miami Heat Brings Big Face to South Beach

As the biggest name on his team, Jimmy Butler is also featured heavily on the Miami Heat social media accounts. Totaling over 25.8 million followers across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the Heat posting their star player in Big Face Brand, and even mentioning it directly on occasion, boosts the brand’s visibility even more.

As of Miami winning the Eastern Conference Finals, 37 Miami Heat posts have shown Big Face Brand in some way during these playoffs, primarily via pregame fit posts and post-game press conferences. These posts have earned an additional 22.4M additional impressions and 745K engagements for the brand, resulting in $526K more social value.

Big Face Brand Goes National

With a big presence on and off the court, the NBA and media outlets often post about Jimmy Butler, and these playoffs are no different. Again, quotable press conferences and arena arrivals donning Big Face Brand apparel expose the brand to a massive national audience. 

The digitally savvy NBA has nearly 165 million followers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and often leans into its players’ personalities and interests for content. As a result, they often post content like the pregame clip below (with a casual 2.9M views), which shows Big Face Brand merch clearly and directly mentions the brand.

Sports media outlets also pick up these Big Face-clad moments, sharing them to a wide array of sports fans that extends beyond the NBA fan base. This presser clip on Bleacher Report’s Twitter has 239K views resulting in over $42K in social value. From the same press conference, a more comedic post from SportsCenter has over 3.3M views on Instagram.

Jimmy Butler is a force on the court and a savvy businessman off of it. Not only did he have the entrepreneurship to parlay what could have been a novelty story from the Bubble into a full-blown business, but he’s remained dogged in promoting it. He’s not stopping either, recently filing a trademark for “Himmy Buckets” that listed coffee as a product (as well as beer, soda, bottled water and clothing), possibly indicating an extension of the Big Face Brand. While there’s less control over when and where the Big Face logo appears, the simple choice to consistently wear Big Face Brand brings the business tons of effortless and authentic publicity, which is tough to buy.

Data: Big Face Brand (IG), Jimmy Butler (IG), Miami Heat (TW, IG, FB) and national media outlet social accounts through the 2023 NBA Eastern Conference Finals (4/10/23 12:00AM – 5/31/23 11:59PM)



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