Just like the feeling one gets after swishing a deep shot, C4 Energy, a brand of Nutrabolt, is enjoying that same energy as it has entered three new partnerships with the Los Angeles Lakers, Canada Basketball, and NBA Europe, respectively.

The following are details of those partnerships:

• C4 is the Official Energy Drink Partner of the Los Angeles Lakers, joining existing NBA team deals with the Knicks, Celtics, and Heat. C4 will appear across LED and courtside signage, digital placements and retail programs. 
• C4 is the Official Energy Drink Partner of Canada Basketball, bringing courtside visibility, national sampling programs, and local collaborations aimed at fueling both elite athletes and grassroots' basketball culture. 
• C4 is the Official Energy Drink Partner of NBA Europe through 2029. Fans across the UK, France, Germany and Italy will see integrated campaigns, digital content, in venue activations, retail programs, and new NBA branded C4 content. The partnership also includes presence at Global Games, meet and greets with NBA legends, and premium hospitality experiences.

Craig Lyon, senior vice president of brand marketing at Nutrabolt, explains that these new partnerships were a natural fit for C4 Energy, pointing to the brand’s recent signing of Josh Hart, shooting guard with the New York Knicks, and how his energy aligns with the C4 brand.

“We’re looking for the guys and girls who are at the center of the energy of the locker room, that almost feel like the energy of the team,” he says. “The Knicks are a team that represents hard work and grit, much like the city that they represent, and Josh is very much at the heart, pun maybe intended there, but at the heart of that locker room and that energy. 

“When we spent time, we had an amazing event with a partner, Local Hoops, who drives a lot of on-ground activations in New York as they get ready to expand into other markets,” Lyon continues. “We brought Josh and Local Hoops together for an unbelievable event where we got to put his personality up in front of the world. And it was amazing where so much of what Josh represents in his life, not only in work ethic, in grit on the court, but also just like the kind of person that he is. Those are the elements that we look for in our talent partnerships that we want folks who can really represent the values of our brand just as much as the value that our product brings to their life.”

Lyon explains that adding the Lakers to its partnership portfolio, which already included the Knicks, Celtics and Heat, allows C4 Energy to engage with a global audience.

“We're working with big teams that have the ability to bring our brand, our message, our values to a global audience and a global fan base,” he says. “And that’s an amazing asset for us to really be able to talk to one population of fans that covers a broad spectrum of the globe. But also we’ve aligned those partnerships to markets that we have great field team resources, great partners in distribution, and have the ability to bring our product to life in tandem with that team’s activity throughout the season.”

What the sport of basketball also offers is what Lyon cites as the cascading effect of basketball fandom that brings C4 Energy a little closer to the game and its fans.

“Just about everybody can step up to maybe the free throw line or just inside the free throw line and get their shot up,” Lyon says. “And we love that because I think it’s a part of where we want our brand to be accessible. We also know that we build products for the most elite athletes in the world, and basketball has this transcendent property around culture, around music, around film, around just the, it's not just the personalities, but it's actually the way the sport is looked at to carry, you know, categories like fashion. 

“For us, we believe that we have basketball athletes who not only utilize our product on court, but they’re living these highly active lives, moving from appearance to appearance or commitment to commitment,” he continues. “We’re there to help power them through that in the same way that we’re there to power them through four quarters and overtime and whatever the game brings their way. I think that closeness for the fans that they actually can get to know some of these guys and girls, that they’re able to see a little bit of themselves in their personalities, that's something that’s helped us really focus on basketball as a place where we can tell great stories with great people and not just put our logo in association to a sport activity.”

What helps fuel athletes and consumers, is the formulation that makes C4 Energy what it stands for. 

“We make a product that is built for the highest performing athletes in the world across all sports,” Lyon says. “Something that's been really interesting for us as we’ve gone out in signing and working through partnerships is our NSF certification sets us apart from other brands in the category. Our product, we are able to ensure for every athlete that grabs a can of C4, that NSF certification is a badge of clarity. It's peace of mind. These athletes put their livelihoods on the line, on the regular.

“… They’re hyper aware and conscious of what they put in their body and that trust that the athletes in some cases are coming to us because they know that they want to be associated with a brand that they’re either already using or that they’ve been told and instructed through their NCAA locker rooms or professional locker rooms, ‘Hey, if this stamp is not on that can, I would not touch it,’” he continues. “We take that more seriously than most, in part because our origins are a performance base.”

Global activations
As noted earlier that association with basketball is not limited to the United States thanks to the partnerships with Canada Basketball and NBA Europe.

“NBA Europe is really exciting,” Lyon says. “You know, basketball has become more and more of a global game. We’ve seen more, quite literally, global games being played at the NBA level. Basketball is not new to the European market, you know, FIBA and those leagues have been around for a long time, and I think what’s amazing for us is that many times we see our brand almost being fragmented into what we do in the U.S. and what we do abroad. 

“This unified approach in basketball has also really helped us drive one clear message,” he continues. “We are very focused on our brand message of we are all athletes. And just in that sense of whether you are playing basketball, going on a hike, doing whatever it is that drives your life to be active, we want to be a part of that. There are times where there are sports that lean toward one part of the world or another, and basketball, we really believe, is a global game. Therefore, we want to make sure that we were involved in the game at a global level.”

Lyon explains that the NBA in Europe is more than the events and teams that are coming in to play games, but also how C4 Energy can work with teams on the ground to activate grassroots basketball.

Noting that Canada being the birthplace of basketball and it being the fast-growing market for C4 Energy, Lyon is excited to have united one message through the sport.

“We’ve only had a few partnerships in the past that we’ve been able to bridge from the U.S. to Canada, so that is something that I think is really exciting for us,” he says.

Lyon points to the success of its NBA partnerships as example of the potential from this unified message.

“We’ve seen real growth, you know, from a dollar sales perspective,” he say. “We’ve seen a 6% lift in all of our markets that we’ve got NBA teams driving in, and those elements are things that we want to try to replicate. So how do we work with the Canadian national team to drive sales across that country? How do we work across our NBA Europe partnership to start to grow our brand's presence in markets that we're in, but we haven't had an association? 

“In the past, a lot of times our teams in Europe are almost pointing across the pond to say, well, look at these amazing things we’re doing with the NBA,” Lyon continues. “Now we get to actually bring things to life that the local market can really lean into with their favorite players, favorite moments ― the activities that bring them closer to this game that’s becoming more global day by day.”

As NBA playoffs continue, Lyon notes that C4 Energy looks forward to engaging through its partnerships.

“I think you'll see C4 showing up on the ground in grassroots basketball and capitalizing on those partnerships and affiliations and bringing fans closer to the athletes and teams that they love, and also providing opportunities to play, to get outside, to learn the game, and to bring more and more people into not only our brand, but into a sport that we love and we know that the world loves,” he says.

Lyon teases that consumers also can expect to see C4 Energy throughout summer in a variety of activations.

“You'll see us playing summer basketball in the streets of New York and out in the parks in LA on the beach,” he says. “And then you will see us in a big way showing up on the global stages that are coming around between FIBA World Cup all the way out to the LA Olympics in ’28.”