“Up Your Game” is not just a campaign, it’s a bold statement declaring the future of sports reporting.

Launched with an original film, we challenged viewers by featuring references and icons only true fans would get.

A test of sorts, the film and campaign comprised purely of Easter eggs/insider references. In the film, a newspaper reads “The Earth May Be Flat,” referencing Kyrie Irving. Ben Kickz’s is overflowing with shoes boxes (reselling culture). The moment of silence is for icon Craig Sager. The cupcake represents Westbrook’s diss of Durant. Iverson clears his “Practice” rant. Marquette’s dance represents the NFL = No Fun League. The “Posse” hoodies are for Phil Jackson’s racist comments about LeBron, and much more.

This challenge continued with OOH, influencer posts, banners, Marshawn Lynch’s show, etc.

By the end, audiences understood that you HAVE to get the culture off the field to get the game on it.

Due to B/R’s relationship with Turner, we waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Our campaign strategically launched when our audience would be most locked in: April 28th, during the NBA Playoffs, and coincidentally the day ESPN laid off 100 of its staff.

The campaign was a blitzkrieg. B/R launched its newly designed app the same day. The film aired primetime – every day during the NBA playoffs. OOH was strategically placed in the cities where our featured athletes had the most influence and reach. Unique influencer posts were also posted across their social channels. An exclusive article with content on Iverson from the shoot was posted on our app.

Our creative idea then spearheaded exclusive branded content by B/R such as Marshawn Lynch’s new show, and much more.

Overall, our creative idea was everywhere and B/R had staked its claim on the future of sports culture reporting.

In 24 hours, the campaign broke B/R’s record for the most traffic with 14.2 million visits from 8 million different people, and received mentions from athletes and influencers (Brandon Jennings, Charles Barkley, Pete Rock, and more). The campaign got a 20% increase in monthly app installs and 200k new active monthly users.

Unique for its voice, the athletes featured, the way it depicts culture, and how it was launched, it became the #1 most downloaded app in the sports category.

More importantly, it showed that the campaign was doing something our rival sports media companies can’t do: talk to and represent the new and future era of sports fandom.

And this is just the first step in its takeover of sports media.