Chicago Bulls’ Return To Relevance Brings Valuable Exposure For Ayo Dosunmu, Zenni

The Chicago Bulls had the worst record in the NBA from 2017-18 through 2020-21, sinking into irrelevance despite being a global brand in a major market. The franchise desperately needed new blood, which came in the form of a revamped front office in 2020 and a roster overhaul in the time since.

Rookie guard Ayo Dosunmu became a part of this overhaul when the Bulls selected him with the No. 38 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. A Chicago product who played the majority of his high school basketball at Morgan Park before starring at the University of Illinois, Dosunmu has been thrust into a key role this season due to Chicago’s key injuries in the backcourt. It has been a whirlwind rookie campaign for the 22-year-old as he has transitioned from a college star to an important NBA role player for his hometown team.

“My biggest challenge has been getting my mental at its strongest to be able to keep going,” Dosunmu said in an email. “In college the season only consists of 33 games a season and in the NBA we play 82 games and that’s not including playoffs, so making sure that I am pacing myself to know that it will be a long road and figuring out how I can make each game as exciting as the last. I always tell myself that ‘your mental capacity is 80% of your performance.’ So even when I feel exhausted, I tap into that 80% to bring out the competitive nature in myself to keep going and saying, ‘mind over matter.’”

While the Bulls have slumped since the All-Star break, Dosunmu’s breakout play helped spark them earlier in the season, making him an immediate fan favorite. They held first place in the Eastern Conference for a good portion of 2021-22 and earned buzz as a dark-horse contender, with Dosunmu raising his national profile as one of the league’s best rookies thanks to his hounding defense, nifty playmaking and surprising 3-point shooting.

That profile will only get bigger as Chicago returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. And as Dosunmu continues to become more of a household name on the court, he’s also getting more opportunities off the court.

Dosunmu is starring in his first national brand campaign with Zenni, the Bulls’ jersey sponsor since 2018. The debut ad features banter with Bulls teammate and “brother” Coby White, a player he won a gold medal with at the 2018 FIBA U18 Americas Championship. The two always kept in touch after that and have a good rapport as teammates once again:

There’s more to come for this Ayo-Zenni partnership, and he’s excited to be a part of it.

“It’s always a great feeling to be a part of campaigns with a national audience like this one with Zenni,” Dosunmu said. “It takes me beyond being from Chicago and just representing my city. I understand that being a member of a big market organization like the Bulls affords me limitless opportunities. I don’t take any of this for granted, and since both my parents wear glasses, this campaign really means a lot to me. I know that it is something that they can take advantage of as well.”

Like Dosunmu and his family, Zenni is taking advantage of the Bulls’ return to prominence. They signed on with the team during those lean years, which featured a lot of losses and little national exposure. But this 2021-22 season has seen more wins, national TV games and media prominence.

According to midseason Bulls TV analytics provided by Zenni, Bulls’ viewership on NBC Sports Chicago increased 116% from last season and the jersey patch value increased by 64% through January. The jersey patch’s TV impressions exceeded last season’s number with 1.8 times more impressions per game over that same span. Social media has also seen a boom, with Zenni tracking 8.1 billion impressions and 63 million engagements across ESPN, Sports Center, House of Highlights, Bleacher Report, NBA and NBA on ESPN through March 26.

The Bulls being in the playoffs “will be the icing on the cake for more national exposure,” says Zenni Brand Marketing and Communications Officer Sean Pate, and the deeper they go the better.

To have an extended playoff stay, Dosunmu and the Bulls will have to turn things around. They’re just 7-14 since the All-Star break and have infamously struggled against the NBA’s elite. They’ve dropped from the top of the East to sixth and continue to be plagued by health problems.

Lonzo Ball will not be coming back from his knee injury, while Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso are battling through injuries of their own. This makes Dosunmu even more important, and he’s trying to implement what he has learned from a championship winner in Caruso as the Bulls finish up the regular season and head into the playoffs.

“AC has taught me to always anticipate my opponent’s next move, do my best to stay in front of the play defensively and the importance of having patience,” Dosunmu said of Caruso. “You can’t rush anything and must stay present in that moment. I mean he knows what it takes to win a championship and that is my ultimate goal, so I’m going to keep observing and soaking it all up like a sponge.”

Chicago will be an underdog in the first round and will need a lot to go right to pull off an upset. But as he deals with these recent team struggles and the dreaded rookie wall, Dosunmu is keeping an even keel so he can be ready for the challenges ahead.

“My goal is to take every game going forward with a clean slate learning from the last and building on that momentum,” Dosunmu said. “I’ll continue to leave it all out there on the wood and do whatever my teammates/coach want to me to do to help us win. I’m taking it one game at a time, not allowing myself to get too high or too low. All while staying present in today and doing it all with the goal to win.”