Vancouver based street apparel and sportswear brand Vancity Original teamed up with Canadian marketing agency Zulu Alpha Kilo leveraged spiking hoops interest around the NBA Draft through a bespoke jersey based ‘VANBACK’ appeal to billionaires and millionaires willing to join their bid to bring a big league basketball franchise back to Vancouver.
The apparel brand created an exclusive set of 15 VANBACK hoops jerseys and committed to giving a personalised shirt to anyone who pledges $200m towards a project to bring back an NBA team to the city of Vancouver. The combined price of the jerseys is set at $3bn – to reflect the average current valuation of an NBA franchise (the Phoenix Suns sold for a record $4bn in 2022).
The city has been without a team since the Grizzlies left Vancouver for Memphis 22 years ago: a switch that left Canada with just one NBA franchise – the Toronto Raptors.
The campaign was timed to leverage the 22 June NBA Draft when existing teams recruit the latest batch of new young hoops prospects with the objective of taking their franchise into a successful future.
Coinciding with the NBA Draft, a physical event strand fo the campaign saw one of the VANBACK jerseys was delivered by security guards to the VANCITY ORIGINAL store encased in plexiglass.
Initially teased from 22 June, the full campaign rolled out digitally through a series of evolving social media executions (with bespoke project accounts created across the usual social channels including Instagram and Twitter) and an anchor appeal film connected by the hashtags #VANBACK and #BRINGBACKBASKETBALL.
The content acts an appeal to hoops lovers, a call-to-action to wealthy wanna-be sports team owners, and asks them to join the project at https://www.vanback.ca.
As the hero spot asks: “Interested? Know any billionaires? Send this video their way.”
The idea is to secure 15 key pledges to generate $3b to form a dedicated team capable of bring the dream to life and successfully bidding for a new franchise.
Fans are encouraged to see the digital versions of the jerseys at VANBACK.ca and to create their own to show their support or follow along at @teamvanback on Instagram and Twitter.
The launch phase was even followed up by a direct social appeal to Hollywood star, business entrepreneur, marketing whizz and Wrexham FC owner Ryan Reynolds: a tactic that might be as much about using his name and appeal to generate further publicity and engagement as about getting the Vancouver born Canadian actor marketing and media hot shot personally involved.
“We’re hoping this initiative will help get Vancouver back on the radar as the perfect city for a future team,” commented Vancity Founder Jeff Martin. “We’ve got the fans. We just need some billionaires to help us out.”
“We want to contribute to the city,” added Zulu Alpha Kilo Founder and Creative Chair Zak Mroueh. “We’ve seen how basketball culture has grown with the Raptors’ success and think Vancouver deserves that shot again too. It’d be amazing for the city and Canada to have two teams up north.”
The campaign was created and developed by a multi-disciplinary team at agency Zulu Alpha Kilo where the team included Chief Creative Officer Zak Mroueh, Executive Creative Directors Dean Lee and Michael Mayes, Managing Director David Tremblay, Design Directors Stephanie Yung and Damian Simev, Designer Peter Kosciolek, Strategy Directors Sean Bell and Erica Shalinsky, Web Developers Kyle Collins and Jake Edwards, Agency Producers Kenneth Haz, Tim Lynch, Colleen Allen and Gina Simone, plus Director Lena Hamady, Editor Brian Noon, Colourist Brian Noon, Online Editor Dan McCarthy and Kilo Sound Mixer Noah Mroueh.
Production was handled by a group at Zulubot which included Executive Producer Adam Palmer, Directors Of Production Ece Inan and Ola Stodulska, Producer Sarah Lasch, Artist Jeannette Downes and Graphic Designer Cecilia Bernasch.
While media was handled by Zulumatic where the team on the project included Media Director Alicia Petralia, Media Planner Andrea Poisson and Communications Director Kelly Flynn.
Additional input came from Studio Soup and IRL Creative Director Of Photography Philip Jarmain, Coordinator Cara Tarbaj, 1st AC Ian Beer, Digital Imaging Technician Chris Rollett and Gaffer Steve De Zwart, while PR was run by The Neighbourhood Agency.
Comment
This is an inventive, resourceful and disruptive campaign….that, sadly, probably won’t succeed in its primary aim, but will generate plenty of publicity and positivity for the brand.
Should Ryan Reynolds buy a basketball jersey from Vancity Original for $200m to join the project to bring back the NBA to his home town?
Well, we’re not quite sure whether he is aactually a billionaire…yet (although the $337m he reportedly trousered from the Mint Mobile sale is helping him on his way).
But at least it might mean a shorter journey than he takes to Wales to watch his own sports team.
Perhaps it might be even more vital to get Francesco Aquilini on board with the project as his family owns Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and Canucks NHL team.
The NBA is certainly ‘considering’ expansion and Commissioner Adam Silver admitted last month that markets in Canada have shown interest, although US cities Seattle and Las Vegas appear to be the frontrunners, though.
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