Behind the scenes of a local startup’s partnership with the Buffalo Bills

When Azuna recently announced its partnership with the Buffalo Bills, it marked not only a strategic move for the business but also for a hometown National Football League team teaming up with a local startup.

The Buffalo-based startup, which makes all-natural odor removal and cleaning products based on tea tree gel, became an official partner with the Bills with the launch of its all-natural odor eliminator and air freshener gel called “Smell of Victory.”

“Azuna, although being based and manufactured locally, I don’t know how aware our local market is about that,” said Jennifer Rung, executive vice president. “So I think this is a great way to come in strong and make that Buffalo connection with local folks. … (The Bills) truly have a national appeal right now as a team, as a franchise, so there’s value beyond just local customers.”

The company employs 31 and expects year-over-year sales growth of 300% to 400% in 2023. The business has raised a $3 million Series A funding round this year.

“We are excited to partner with a young, fresh Buffalo based company that’s scaling up quickly,” Dan Misko, Bills senior vice president of business development, said in a news release. "The consumer product collaboration makes this partnership especially unique for us, and we know Bills fans will be eager to give this made-in-Buffalo product a try.”

How it happened: Two of Azuna’s investors — Ron Faso, a local business executive, and Harold Erbacher, COO of Northtown Automotive Companies, which is also an official Bills partner — introduced Azuna CEO Scott Dancy to the Bills sponsorship team. Within a couple weeks, Dancy said, they had a paid partnership agreement. The amount paid for the partnership is not being disclosed.

The why: Azuna’s current and target markets overlap with the Bills’ fan base, both locally and nationally. One of the startup’s most popular products is an odor-removing product for athletes. “I think our market is really every person who has smells in their house,” said Rung.

How it works: The first step was creating a scent for some of Azuna’s existing products. The startup’s team developed the scent, and the Bills folks came up with the name and approved the first iteration of the scent, which includes a pop of champagne with floral and fruit notes.

Azuna developed the packaging and the Bills team approved that as well. As part of the partnership, the startup’s name will be on the ribbon billboard in the stadium, will be part of the team’s email marketing program, will get promotion on the Bills’ social media platforms and will do brand activation outside the stadium on the “Billavard” on home game days.

“Those are all the ways Azuna is hoping to reach those Bills fans,” she said. “It may mean sampling, giveaways, things like that. We’re not quite there yet. That’s what we’re talking about now.”

The strategy: Forming partnerships and utilizing influencers has been part of Azuna’s strategy from the start. The business has preexisting agreements with figures like Captain Sandy from the Bravo show “Below Deck Mediterranean” and recently announced that Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins is an official spokesperson for the company.

But the startup formed those agreements incrementally to build up its infrastructure to eventually support a significant partnership like this latest one with the Bills, according to Rung.

“Honestly, I think Scott (Dancy) has been very bold and aggressive with the value of understanding what influencers and just social media marketing can do,” she said. “But also very meticulous about understanding return on ad spend.”