Grammy winning musicians The Black Eyed Peas linked up with official NBA broadcaster ESPN for a creative collaboration to promote a special 2015 NBA Playoffs broadcast focused on their new song – This Is Awesome – penned to capture the energy and excitement of the action.
In a promotional initiative for its NBA Playoff programming, which kicked off on 18 April on ESPN (and ABC), ESPN debuted the campaign the day before the knock-out games began.
The initiative was led by the new track and video performance by The Black Eyed Peas.
The commercial features the group playing ‘Awesome’ and appearing alongside Pitch Perfect actress Rebel Wilson and several NBA stars from playoff teams.
The video aims to celebrate the start of the NBA Playoffs and features Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), James Harden (Houston Rockets), Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers), Paul Millsap(Atlanta Hawks), John Wall (Washington Wizards), Klay Thompson (Warriors) and more.
This is the hip-hop group’s first post-Fergie new music in five years.
The song itself initially made its live debut earlier in the week on stage during Dave Guetta‘s live set at Coachella music festival.
Comment
Yet another creative collaboration that sees the music industry blend with the sports space – this tie-up is an innovative approach to launching a new single and promoting a set of broadcast rights.
Interestingly, back in December 2014, when will.i.am first talked of a Black Eyed Peas reunion he told Ryan Seacrest that fans shouldn’t expect a tradition al album as ‘no one listens to albums anymore’, but that fans should expect ‘new music experiences’.
Perhaps even back then he was hinting at the ESPN collaborative NBSA project?
Links
ESPN YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ESPN
ESPN Facebook:
ESPN Twitter:
ESPN Google +:
https://plus.google.com/+ESPN/videos
The Black Eyed Peas
NBA Playoffs:
