This is a story about the greatest day in the history of sports. No, really.

It’s what’s called a “Sports Equinox,” and it occurs when all four major American sports leagues (the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB) play a game on the same day. Historically, only 18 had ever happened in the history of… well, ever.

But suddenly, the stars were aligning. If the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers were to reach a Game 5 of the World Series, a new, unprecedented form of Sports Equinox would take place on Sunday, October 28, 2018. That’s because a fifth sports league (the MLS) also had a game that day.

And to top it all off, it was all happening for the first time ever in the same place—Los Angeles. This was like the supernova of Sports Equinoxes.

5 sports. 1 city. 1 day.

(Told ya, it was big.)

With such an unprecedented event, it naturally begged the question:

What if you could attend them all?

Our idea was to have Goodyear help one fan—and hopefully millions of viewers by proxy—experience this ultimate day in sports. They would arrive in the Goodyear Blimp, then attend five games over an eight-hour period for the Kings (hockey), Galaxy (soccer), Rams (football), Dodgers (baseball) and Clippers (basketball), all while sharing their journey in real-time via social and with coverage from the press.

But first, we needed the Dodgers to win a game and force a Game 5 or the equinox was off. And in fact, it took an 18-inning game, the longest in World Series history to make it happen. But as the Dodgers defeated the Red Sox in the early hours of Saturday morning, a Sports Equinox on Sunday was assured.

We had just 36 hours to prepare.

In a low-interest category like tires, the brand that's top of mind is the brand that wins. Since Goodyear’s target audience over-indexes on all five major sporting leagues in the Sports Equinox, capitalizing on this unexpected event in real-time presented a real business opportunity, despite the fact that all five sporting leagues have their own ‘official tire’ sponsors (spoiler: they’re not Goodyear).

Goodyear has long used the Blimp’s authentic connection with sports as a means to connect with consumers in ways only Goodyear can. From overseeing multiple World Series, the Olympics and even being the College Football Hall of Fame’s first-ever non-human inductee, the Goodyear Blimp has earned its place on some of the biggest stages in sports.

Now with the Sports Equinox upon us, our approach was to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime moment in sports history to position Goodyear at the center of the sports universe.

The problem was not only did we have just 36 hours to prepare, but we had no official access to any of the stadiums or use of any intellectual properties, plus the added challenge of LA traffic.

Luckily, we had a Blimp. And not only would it serve as our means of transportation, but through its connection to college football, the Blimp helped link us to one of our key partners—former Heisman winner Desmond Howard.

Together with Howard, we surprised a veteran and LA sports fan with the chance to attend all five games. Using Howard as both host and media partner, we were able to share the event in real-time through his social channels while teasing the event on our own. We then followed the duo with a small camera crew, capturing additional content on mobile for a recap video that was edited together through the night.

By the time the dust had settled on the Sports Equinox, Goodyear had attained numerous headlines, a placement on SportsCenter, video content that was picked up and shared by ESPN the next day, plus a genuine viral moment in which two Packers fans had unwittingly tried to talk their team’s own former player into becoming a Packers fan, himself.

In sum, paid social posts had garnered 816.2K+ impressions on Twitter and 716.5K+ impressions on Facebook, as well as 214K+ Facebook video views. Meanwhile, PR efforts secured 64 earned media/social placements, reaching more than 99.3MM impressions.

Despite access, budget and time constraints, we were able to capitalize on an unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime moment that has never happened before and may truly never happen again. On October 28, as all eyes in the sports world turned to Los Angeles, Goodyear was centerstage, helping to take ownership of the most Blimpworthy moment of all-time.