As a component to the summer 2004 launch of Nike’s successful “Battlegrounds” line of basketball apparel, Nike turned to Wieden + Kennedy and @radical.media to develop original content and communication around the Battlegrounds concept — gritty, realistic stories about struggling players seeking the prize as the top street basketball player in their city — and turn it into a summer television series for MTV and MTV2.Premiering in July 2004, the five-part series and integrated website (created in collaboration with RG/A) chronicled street basketball players from New York, LA, Chicago and Philadelphia competing against players from Spain, France, Germany and Italy in hopes of winning the coveted “King of the World” title.

In June, a teaser campaign began on a website launched through both Nike.com and MTV.com. As the television premiere date neared, the site was expanded to include an interactive map featuring the upcoming cities and “battles”. Heavy on-channel promotion was kicked off mid June with a :60 “super teaser” spot.On July 11th, Episode 1 premiered on MTV2, followed by a July 15th premiere on MTV. A new episode premiered each week through August 8th. Throughout the broadcast window, the website tracked the storylines and characters from the series encouraging user interaction through a series of online promotions and voting.After it’s US broadcast, the series was distributed throughout Europe and Asia on MTV and a promotional DVD was distributed internationally.