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THE PUNIES - A YOUTH SPORTS PODCAST CREATED BY NBA LEGEND KOBE BRYANT

GRANITY STUDIOS, Costa Mesa / GRANITY STUDIOS / 2019

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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment Lions for Sport?

Created by NBA Legend Kobe Bryant, The Punies is a narrative podcast for kids about an eclectic group of friends who play sports in their neighborhood park. In its first season, The Punies resonated with kids and parents alike as it taught valuable life lessons through a fun and imaginative sports stories. The podcast was rated #1 in Kids and Family, and became a source of curriculum in 4th grade classrooms.

Describe the creative idea

Bryant set out to teach young athletes life lessons through the lens of sports. Bryant feels that the younger generation would view The Punies as just fun, but as they get older he hoped they’d start to understand the meanings and messages, and the series would teach them qualities like perseverance, commitment, hard work, compassion, and empathy. Those are things that sports naturally teach. Bryant wanted to implant life lessons by combining sports with humor, original music, and fantasy and fairytale, so that those lessons could resonate a lot more with children.

The Punies invites the listener to flex their creative muscles and visit a world where sports are played with joy and limitless imagination.

Describe the strategy

The underlying theme of the series is persistence in the face of failure, as the always-anxious Pete fails over and over again because of his tendency to overthink everything. Although his failure drives the humor for the series, his admirable willingness to never give up drives its core message. Other themes within the series explore the mental game behind sports with topics such as awareness, taking risks, and overcoming fear - all topics Bryant has dealt with in his legendary basketball career. The ultimate strategy for the series was to tie these life lessons into the lives of the characters and the captivating narratives of each episode.

Describe the execution

Reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons, new episodes were released every Saturday morning in hopes of providing listening entertainment for the whole family on the way to weekend sporting activities. The target audience was primarily focused on young athletes, ages 6-9, with a secondary emphasis on their parents and volunteer coaches.

The secondary audience was reached through Kobe’s strategic press coverage as he participated in top-tier interviews leading up to the launch, such as Sports Illustrated Kids, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Extra, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and People. The primary audience was reached through the captivating content of the podcast.

Bryant also surprised kids with a live table read with the cast of The Punies at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where many patients found inspiration from the podcast.

Describe the outcome

Bryant’s hospital visit to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County made a huge splash, generating over 515M unique impressions across all platforms.

Schools are even turning the podcast into curriculums as fun, alternative learning techniques. Bryant paid a surprise visit to the students of Oxford Prep Academy in Mission Viejo and watched kids present projects they’d been working on about The Punies, which reached over 330M people across all platforms.

With over 372K downloads, The Punies has made history as the first youth sports podcast to market and has made a positive impact on the lives of its listeners. Bryant set out to inspire children with The Punies and created an example of creative storytelling that has captured the imagination and hearts of children and parents alike. There is surprisingly little content that combines the passion of sports and the traditions of original storytelling. The Punies has filled that void.

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