Lowe's is cementing its newfound relationship with the NFL with enough 4x6 boards for 140 football fields
- Lowe's provided tons of supplies to build the stage for the 2019 NFL draft in Nashville.
- The project is just one component of the company's plan to leverage its NFL partnership and win over home-improvement professionals.
- "What I'm probably most excited about is it really ties in Lowe's partnership with the NFL and the fact that we're a home-improvement company," Lowe's CMO Jocelyn Wong told Business Insider.
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Now that Lowe's is the National Football League's official home-improvement retail sponsor, the company is spiking the football in the end zone, so to speak.
The home-improvement retailer embarked on a multi-year partnership in January, one that ensured that Lowe's would enjoy both branding rights and marketing opportunities through the NFL.
But the NFL is getting something out of the deal, too: a big stage for the draft.
Lowe's descended on Nashville to supply the football league with 39,000 square feet of plywood, 50,000-pound truckloads of lumber, and 42,000 linear-feet of 4x6 boards. That's 140 football fields' worth of 4x6 boards.
Lowe's CMO Jocelyn Wong said that the company didn't just supply the NFL's production team with supplies, it also provided tools and Lowe's branded vests and hard hats.
Read more: Lowe's scores massive NFL deal and takes direct aim at Home Depot's core customers
"What I'm probably most excited about is it really ties in Lowe's partnership with the NFL and the fact that we're a home-improvement company," Wong told Business Insider. "It was a really cool angle for us. We're not a Nike or a Pepsi, where we're endemic to the game. We're home improvement. So how do you stay top of mind and differentiate yourself while leveraging this partnership?"
She added that the draft stage was just one of three "buckets" that make up the home-improvement retailer's latest campaign.
Lowe's has also established a national campaign under the #ProReady hashtag to win over professional customers. In order to accomplish that goal, it is running national, NFL-themed TV spots and setting up billboards in Times Square and Nashville.
Meanwhile, on a local level, the Lombardi Trophy is touring around different Lowe's stores for employees to admire. Lowe's also arranged for Tennessee Titans players Delanie Walker and Wesley Woodyard to drop by and surprise Nashville-area Lowe's customers and employees. The company donated turf to a local Boys & Girls Club and built picnic tables for a Nashville Habitat for Humanity.
Wong said that this push was all about showing how Lowe's is upping its game, just like the players selected in the NFL draft.
"This idea of upping your game and taking it to the next level is something that Lowe's absolutely feels that is inside of us," she said. "We breathe it. It's very much what the NFL and the players are about, and we see a lot of great strategic parallels for our partnership with the NFL."