The NBA exists at the intersection of sports and entertainment. It’s equal parts what happens on the court and what happens off, from tunnel fits to social media feuds, training clips, rap features, and beyond. This film taps into every aspect of the basketball world, covering what everyone from superstars to superfans is doing to get ready for the season and leaning into our featured players’ personalities to make sure our easter eggs and inside jokes resonate with every kind of fan.

Existing at the crossroads of sports and pop culture means forever welcoming new generations of fans who love the league both on and off the court. That meant our campaign had to be extra tuned-in to the players’ personalities and inside jokes from around the league.

The NBA’s generational talents, neverending records, and ever-expanding social presence are what drove us to make a suite of content highlighting the scope of the NBA’s influence from court to the culture.

In the NBA, nonstop evolution is the name of the game. Just when you think the drama and action have reached a peak, the league evolves in new ways to deliver new thrills, spectacles, and influences. Still, it's never just about what’s happening on the court.

As the league enters the fourth quarter of its first century, the start-of-season tipoff represented the perfect moment to meet our holistic NBA fandom where they engage with the action with tailored content designed to excite.

By showcasing an understanding of how and why different depths of the NBA community consume the product, we reminded core fans – those sitting at the edge of their seat for every game – why the NBA is the pacesetter for all other leagues to follow, and galvanized more casual and curious fans to tune into the action for this season and beyond.

Our campaign was a personification of the league itself – fast and furious with no signs of slowing down, while still bringing everyone along for the ride. Each of our assets was purpose-built to resonate with everybody – from OLV for the YouTube natives to radio spots for the athletic audiophiles to spots for the tuned-in TV traditionalists and a dozen bespoke online films for the social media junkies. Our social-first approach allowed us to connect with the younger audience and those fans who prioritize the social nature of the game, from inside jokes to memes, while our TV and radio spots made sure we reached the more traditional fanbase. All of our audiences saw themselves represented in The Nonstop NBA, creating a generation-transcending campaign with noticeable results – the most-watched NBA Opening Night in 5 years with 7.3 million viewers, a 17% increase from the year before.

We made sure to launch this campaign with enough time to build excitement for the coming season, but not so soon that it would be forgotten by the time the season began. The impact was clear with the most-watched NBA Opening NIght in 5 years. We rolled out the main film followed by a 30 second cut-down after the season got rolling and another as we approached the holidays. By covering our bases across traditional media with radio and TV spots, as well as social media shorts, we were able to reach every type of NBA fan while establishing longevity to reach fans around the world without falling off.

By leveraging an avatar of NBA fandom that expressed the full spectrum of league love — love of the on-court action, the basketball community, and basketball culture — our Start of Season creative achieved the wide reach we were aiming for - culminating in the most-watched NBA Opening Night in 5 years with 7.3 million viewers, a 17% increase from the year before.

The campaign garnered pickup across top-tier sports, sports business and lifestyle outlets including Sports Business Daily, SportBusiness, The Source, Sports Illustrated, and more. Of note, Muse By Clio commented that the brand campaign’s “fan's-eye-view feels like a change of pace for a juggernaut that never stops driving the worlds of sports, fashion and music in unexpected ways.”

Additional amplification on social included posts from Complex Sports, The Source, Clutch Points, NBC Chicago, and around the world coverage included France, Latin America, Serbia and the U.K.

Through easter eggs, scripted jokes, play on words, and set dressings The Nonstop NBA features countless cultural references that only a hardcore basketball fan would recognize.

Here are a few to help contextualize the work:

0:30 - The woman in the Hawks jersey mimics an iconic “hush” that Trae Young gave in the 2021 Playoffs

0:57 - Nonstop is playing the famous basketball simulation video game NBA 2K

1:05 - Basketball influencer Crissa Jackson let’s the world know its the Nets year

1:11 - This is a quick scroll through everything the NBA app has to offer

1:26 - This is Damian Lillard, an All-Star NBA player and a well known rapper by the name of Dame D.O.L.L.A.

1:30 - The NBA recently built its own experience within Meta’s Horizon World