• by Les Luchter , 5 hours ago

Five months after coming out as an Invisalign user, NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes is starring in a campaign for the clear dental aligners. The effort launched today with a :30 spot airing on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.” It will continue for a year on national TV and other platforms.

Several teenage athletes share the ad’s spotlight with Mahomes, who tells viewers that “talent alone wouldn’t take me to the top.  Confidence isn’t a handout. You’ve got to build it.”

Indeed, building confidence through straighter teeth is the “backbone of the Invisalign brand,” vice president of brand and consumer marketing Kamal Bhandal tells Marketing Daily. Saying that Invisalign aims to “showcase the transformative power of confident smiles,” she cites a “confidence crisis that’s unfolding in young kids across the country.”

Bhandal says that “45% of girls are dropping out of sport before the age of 14, not because of skill, but because of body confidence issues” and that 55% of girls in the fifth and sixth grades “do not have the confidence in themselves to achieve whatever it is that they’re dreaming of achieving.”

Having Mahomes show that Invisalign “fits into his active lifestyle can help fuel that confidence on and off the field,” she says.

Rumors had circulated for years about Mahomes using Invisalign, so the brand “reached out to his team,” Mahomes acknowledges. “They wanted to connect with us as well,” she says. “We both believed there was a great story to be told here.”

That story? Invisalign is not only “effective in straightening your teeth, but in elevating that confidence that is so critical for formative teenagers.”

The Mahomes campaign, whose size is “definitely comparable, if not bigger, than prior campaigns,” is mainly targeted to teens and their parents, with the goal of increasing awareness and having them talking to their orthodontists/doctors,  But, she adds, Invisalign also wants to reach everyone, even into their 60s and 70s.

Mahomes is part of Invisalign’s “Smile Squad,” which also just recruited former college gymnast turned model and superstar influencer Livvy Dunne (with some 13 million followers on TikTok and Instagram). “Invisalign clear aligners gave me the confidence to match my smile with any look,”  she says in her debut social media post. “And when I’m feeling confident, I feel I can tackle anything.”

One superstar Invisalign wearer who isn’t (at least not yet) a member of the “Smile Squad” is music’s Pharrell Williams, who revealed his use in a comment at last month’s Met Gala in New York City.  That fact was previously unknown to the brand, which quickly jumped on the revelation to garner earned media.

Agencies involved with the campaign are Digitas for creative, Starcom Media for paid media, MSL for earned media, and Smarty Social to drive IRL (in real life) experiences.

Mahomes' numerous other endorsement deals have included State Farm, Adidas, Hunt’s ketchup, T-Mobile and Head & Shoulders.