The Heist IST CG Social Activation
The 6th Annual Awards
- Best Event or Experiential Campaign
- Best New Fan Experience
- Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
In the 2023-2024 season, the NBA introduced the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament to increase early season viewership and engagement. Tournament games started at each team’s home courts throughout the month of November, and then culminated in spectacular showdowns in Las Vegas for the semi-finals and championship games.
With a brand new tournament taking place in a city without a local NBA team, the league needed to ensure that the marketing efforts would drive conversation and excitement for the inaugural In-Season Tournament games in Las Vegas. To capture the world’s attention, we set out to achieve a level of bewilderment that could exceed the bright lights of Las Vegas. Four CGI videos posted from various social accounts—from a larger than life championship trophy on The Strip, to a basketball hoop on top of The Strat—blended reality at the league’s will to give the impression of a complete city takeover.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
This campaign set a new bar for the coordination of technology, social media, and comms planning. With a limited budget, lack of player involvement, and a desire to attract global attention, we had to get crafty in our execution to achieve league goals. Leaning into fan behavior and the natural tendency to share unbelievable highlights seen on social media translated perfectly into an execution that showed fans almost unbelievable marketing for the In-Season Tournament.
Objective
This being the first ever NBA In-Season Tournament brought together a very clear objective for our work – conversation. The league needed people talking about the In-Season Tournament so that they could convert that conversation into hype and eyeballs on the games themselves.
Strategy & Execution
Understanding that the modern sports fan is one of the most active audiences on social media, the core strategy of this campaign was to get fans talking by creating ambiguity.
While the straightforward approach would be to cover Vegas in out-of-home advertisements, our campaign sought the use of CGI to balance realism and create on-the-ground content from the perspective of a fan that would get viewers questioning if it was real or not. We accomplished the ambiguity through four CGI videos:
- An In-Season Tournament inflatable basketball on top of the Paris Balloon
- An In-Season Tournament basketball spinning on the finger of New York, New York’s Lady Liberty
- An enormous basketball hoop on top of The Strat Tower
- A “wide load” In-Season Tournament trophy arriving to The Strip
Then, to add to the ambiguity of our content’s realism, we coordinated the rollout of each CGI video to come from individuals, rather than the league.
Organizations
- Translation
- NBA
- JIMMY x SuperHeroes
Links
Featured
- Richard Jefferson
- Shaquille O’Neal
- Stephen A. Smith
- Tristan Jass
Credits
Deidre Hering
Senior Copywriter
Translation LLC
Jen Wang
Senior Art Director
Translation
nuderobot JIMMY
Artist
JIMMY x SuperHeroes
Ghost3Deem JIMMY
Artist
JIMMY x SuperHeroes
Mina Mikhael
Group Creative Director
Translation
Steve Horn
Group Creative Director
Translation
Tammy Henault
Chief Marketing Officer
National Basketball Association
Kara Dean
Associate Vice President, Partner Marketing
National Basketball Association
Alex Gerson
Associate Vice President, Global Fan Marketing
National Basketball Association
Alaina Williams
Associate Vice President, Global Fan Marketing
NBA
Natalie Martinez
Global Fan Marketing Strategy Lead
National Basketball Association
David Mintz
Group Account Director
Translation
Taylor West
Account Director
Translation
Laura Palacino
Senior Account Executive
Translation
Sophie Sharma
Account Executive
Translation
Alex Glaum
Context Director
Translation
Evan Auerbach
Context Planner
Translation
Johnny Toliver IV
Context Planner
Translation
Jenny Whitlock
Senior Vice President, Head of Global Fan Marketing
National Basketball Association
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
