The entire activation was centred on two critical insights.

First, Kevin Durant (or KD as his fans call him) is crazy good at NBA2K Online. Like ridiculously good. He’s even gone on national television to boast about it. And it's not always inevitable for a great on-court player to be a great video game player of the same sport.

Second, the NBA2K online game offered a brilliant platform to tap into every single basketball fan across the country. You really can’t overestimate NBA2K Online’s popularity in China (5 million monthly active users, source: Tencent) – players are incredibly passionate, even recreating their in-game moves on the court.

Thus was born the ‘Play KD Show’ – a once in a lifetime chance for a fan to play KD one-on-one.

Virtually and in the real world.

463,000 players answered the challenge, all competing in the virtual tournament for a chance to play KD head on.

Gao Yang, the final winner, represented China in a live broadcast match up against KD.

• First, they went one-on-one in virtual street game – with KD narrowly beating Gao Yang 18 to 15.

• The second game was the standard five-on-five format – going to two full overtimes until KD won with a buzzer-beating final slam dunk.

• Finally, KD took Gao Yang out of the studio and onto the courts where they played together as part of KD’s Rise Academy.

The entire event was live streamed on China’s largest online sports channel, Tencent NBA, and broadcast to digital out-of-home locations.

KD interacted with Nike members online, answering questions, sharing insights on his training methods, and even introduced a virtual pair of KD9’s, his brand new shoes, into the game.

The opportunity to directly engage with NBA superstar like Kevin Durant on their favourite platform drove unprecedented excitement among Chinese basketball fans and completely reinvented the athlete tour:

• 463,000 fans competed for a chance to play Kevin Durant head on

• 1.8 million fans tuned in live to watch the two-hour show via Tencent NBA and NBA2K Online, generating 38 thousand comments and 70 million product impressions. The show also made it be the #1 program on Tencent NBA for TWO ENTIRE WEEKS, driving 33 million views in total.

(Source: Tencent)

• 306,000 virtual KD9’s were downloaded and paid for in the game, converting an astonishing two-thirds of the tournament’s competitors

• In the real world, Kevin Durant’s new shoe, the KD9, became his fastest selling shoe yet for NIKE.

(Source: Nike)