In Sony PlayStation’s NBA 07: The Life Vol. 2, gamers can experience life in the NBA both on and off the court. Our task was to promote this feature as well as rivalries, the focus of the series’ latest version.To do this, we decided to create our own rivalry between Kobe Bryant and Billy Joe Cuthbert, a fictitious player we created to be the antithesis to the NBA superstar. The dispute was Kobe Bryant’s selection as the videogame’s cover athlete.

In TV and print, Billy Joe challenged Kobe to a game of one-on-one to decide who should be the cover athlete.Through banner ads, fans could vote for who they felt was more deserving of the cover honour.On the MambaVsMongoose.com microsite, visitors could learn more and through an online petition, show their support for the match up.For outdoor, wild postings blanketed cities everywhere. Two weeks later, Billy Joe posters mysteriously covered them up. This was all filmed and distributed as a viral video.