Nike China’s HBL (High School Basketball League) is the ultimate high school sporting event of the year. For many, it’s the last and biggest tournament they’ll ever play in. In 2018, Nike set out to inspire the next wave of players to up their game and reach their potential. Nike created “The Road To HBL” - a wechat experience that gives teens a first-hand experience of what it’s like to get into the team. The training, the fun, the struggle and glory of HBL. To make it real, we interviewed players, their parents, friends, fans coaches and turned their stories into scenes. There’re over 144 different combinations and up to 700 different variations so every story is unique.

To scale the spirit of HBL and fuel a national basketball movement, we created a digital first-hand experience of it that could be customised and shared.

Graphic novel-style animations of pivotal HBL moments - first training, locker room banter, fan support, a live game and the thrill of winning - can be pieced together in over 700 combinations and personalised with the addition of name, jersey colour, player number and more.

The experience was shared across Social platforms such as Wechat and Weibo and through printed QR codes on merchandise during the games. This experience was launched on April 17th 2018 the day the national finals was announced and ran during the 2 weeks leading up to the grand final on April 30th.

A socially driven execution the experience reached over 12 million netizens with the help of celebrities like Bai Jin Ting, Wang Zhe Lin, Fang Shuo, Zhao Rui, and Kobe himself who all shared their own posters on their weibo accounts.

Over 75k Unique users within 14 days, Over 400k page views, with averages of 3 minutes of engagement time. Bounce rate is around 40% overall and more than half of the users played till the very end of the experience. And more than 15% of the traffic came from the QR codes located on posters designed by basketball fans.

Every basketball kid grew up wishing they can be "Sakuragi" from the manga "Slam Dunk", but now, they have a chance to create their own animated story. "THE WAY OF HBL" (High school Basketball League) is a 2:30min interactive animated mobile experience to give kids who've didn't play in the HBL a taste of what it's like to be a player. By doing so, Nike China can inspire more kids to feel the fun, competition and excitement of game.

To find something that can ignite all high school basketballers, we talked to basketballers, HBL players in Beijing and Shanghai.

HBL is nowhere close to NBA or CBA in terms of performance. But when it comes to the level of passion and determination, it’s second to none. Everyone can relate to their struggles and successes, their blood, sweat and tears, even if he/she doesn’t play in HBL.

In China, high school is considered the best time for most basketballers. They all treasure this unique period, and fear these great memories will fade away soon.

To scale the spirit of HBL and fuel a national basketball movement, we aim to create a digital experience where everyone can tell their personalized “I only high school basketball once” stories and express their passion, and turn all basketballers’ fading memories to lasting legacy. We integrate Nike digital ecosystem and influencers to amplify the impact.

-Nike HBL (High School Basketball League) has been gaining traction. Last year, it gained 150 million views nationwide. But it’s still a far cry from HBL Taiwan, which is even more popular than its pro-basketball league.

-Every high school basketballer dreams of playing HBL, but Nike only provides HBL to 5 cities for now.

-This year, for the first time, Nike will launch the “national HBL invitational”. It is the opportunity to elevate HBL to a higher status and create bigger cultural impact nationwide. The vision is to be the only tournament that matters.

• Brief

Create impactful digital activations that engage HBL players, HBL community and high school basketballers across the nation during HBL national invitational.

• Objectives

Scale the passion and spirit of HBL players to engage larger communities to be part of the game during HBL national invitational.

Fuel a high-school basketball movement in China.