In the US sports calendar Christmas Day means an basketball bonanza and NBA broadcast partner ESPN promoted its 2016 festive match-ups by rebooting its familiar ‘Commissioner Claus’ campaign with a series of comic clips.
A few days ahead of the big day itself, a fresh 12-spot series of Santa Claus ads returned to ESPN (and on sibling ABC).
Developed in harness with agency Wieden+Kennedy (New York), the initiative again sees Father Christmas (played by actor John Rue) take on the role of the new NBA commissioner for Christmas Day.
Currently in its third year, the 2016 campaign featured a dozen short spots: including ‘Haircut’,
"Haircut" – ESPN's Christmas Day campaign from ESPNMediaZone on Vimeo.
‘Paperwork’,
"Paperwork" – ESPN's Christmas Day campaign from ESPNMediaZone on Vimeo.
‘Jingle Bells’,
"Jingle Bells" – ESPN's Christmas Day campaign from ESPNMediaZone on Vimeo.
‘Ideas’,
"Ideas" – ESPN's Christmas Day campaign from ESPNMediaZone on Vimeo.
and ‘Steve’s Wish List’,
"Steve's Wish List" – ESPN's Christmas Day campaign from ESPNMediaZone on Vimeo.
as well as a 30-for-30 parody film on Santa Claus,
Santa takes a break from his @ESPNNBA preparations to answer the question on everyone's mind… when will he get a #30for30?! pic.twitter.com/PlPChVkQ7l
— ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) December 21, 2016
Another ad in New York featured New York Knicks power forward Kristaps Porzingis promote the Christmas Day Knicks v Boston Celtics game.
This spot saw Commissioner Santa call Porzingis from the commissioner’s office and, tablet in hand, try and speak to the player in his native Latvian.
2016 even saw Mr Claus pop in to ESPN’s Bristol (Connecticut) offices to discuss his baller career change and in an interview with Front Row he offered viewers a glimpse into his naughty/nice list for this year.
Comment:
ESPN’s ‘Commissioner Claus’ campaign runs separately, but in parallel to the NBA’s own ‘Dunktastic campaign promoting its slate of Christmas Day games (see case study).
The festive work doesn’t quite mirror W+K New York’s otherwise highly consistent “This Is SportsCenter” work for ESPN, but the campaign is comic and charming and it certainly follows in the footsteps of both last year’s ‘Santa Claus Free Agent’ spot,
and 2014’s Santa series such as ‘KD Presents’.
Links:
ESPN:
https://www.facebook.com/ESPN/
https://www.instagram.com/espn/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/user/ESPN
NBA:
http://www.instagram.com/nba
http://nba.tumblr.com
