Each year the NBA dominates the festive sporting landscape by scheduling great games featuring big stars on Christmas Day and building up to its holiday matchups the league’s annual Christmas ad campaign is also eagerly awaited.
This year the NBA teamed up with agency Translation to light up Christmas Day in an entirely new way to capture images athletes in action.
The league’s marketers traced images and footage of the players highlighted in the commercial in a two dimensional environment and then transferred the drawings to a three dimensional space where they were re-created as beautiful light sculptures.
The 30-second spot was set to the sounds of a modern recording of ‘Deck the Halls’ and each track beat was synchronised to the players’ movements.
The 2018 Xmas commercial, called ‘The NBA Lights Up Christmas Day’, debuted on Friday, 14 December during ESPN’s nationally televised doubleheader between the Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers followed by the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The commercial then aired across NBA media partners and online through 25 December and was supported by social media and in-arena activation.
Among the players featured were Tim Hardaway Jr. (New York Knicks) vs Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), James Harden (Houston Rockets) vs Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder), Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers) vs Kyrie Irving (Boston Celtics), Kevin Durant (Golden State Warriors) vs LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers) and Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers) vs Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz).
Comment:
The spot falls under the league’s “This Is Why We Play” umbrella campaign.
Sports fans and sports marketers look forward to the NBA’s festive campaign almost as much as they look forward to Santa’s own visit.
Classic spots from Christmas past have ranged from players sitting on the lap of Kris Kringle himself in 2017
to 2016’s ‘Most Dunktastic Time Of The Year’ (see case study), while 2013 saw the game’s best shooters draining 3’s to make a ‘Carol Of the Bells’ jingle (see case study).
The NBA’s Christmas 2018 slate of games include:
• Milwaukee Bucks vs. New York Knicks ESPN Noon (ET)
• Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets ABC 3 PM (ET)
• Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics ABC 5:30 PM (ET)
• Los Angeles Lakers vs, Golden State Warriors ABC 8 PM (ET)
• Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz ESPN 10:30 PM (ET)
From the Christmas Day games, all 16 teams which made the playoffs last season will add Nike ‘NBA Earned Edition’ uniforms into their respective rotation.
For Christmas, eight teams that will premiere their Nike NBA Earned Edition uniforms: the Warriors, Celtics, Thunder, Jazz, Trail Blazers, Bucks, Rockets and Sixers.
The others sides will debut these jerseys later in the season.
“The new looks, which are variations of each team’s Statement or City Edition uniforms, aim to supply fans with a tangible claim to both their team’s heritage and current success streak,” said a Nike statement.
Links:
NBA
https://www.youtube.com/user/NBA
https://www.instagram.com/nba/
Translation
https://www.translationllc.com/
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.