• Situation

Every year in March, the HBL generates a viewership of almost 3 million and attracts nearly 40,000 visitors during its finals. It’s Taiwan’s hottest basketball event, and all major brands who sponsor the HBL all try their best to connect with all the sports fans. During the finals, most sponsoring brands try to attract fans in ways such as basketball shooting games at various event booths, where only a limited number of fans can be reached and do not leave lasting impressions.

• Brief

For Nike to interact and engage with all the young fans during the HBL finals, using elements from the basketball culture as the main driving force.

• Objectives

To stand out from the crowd using new ways to grasp the attention of all the fans, leaving a memorable game watching experience.

Since the game on court belongs to the teams and players, we wanted to give the fans on-site a game of their own. We noticed fans are mostly on their phones when they aren’t watching the game, so we decided to leverage the minute-long breaks throughout the game to engage with fans. The idea is the ‘HBL Mascot Capsule Toy Machine’, a scalable mobile-centric digital experience that enables everyone to join.

• Implementation

We worked with LINE, the most popular instant communications application for teenagers in Taiwan. The game starts at the timeouts during games, connecting mobile devices within a fixed proximity using Bluetooth sent from the LINE Beacon, so the entire stadium of 20,000 fans can join at once. The contents of the HBL Mascot Capsule Toy Machine is updated according to the teams playing each time, while every capsule features a unique gift inside, including HBL team mascot stickers, posters, and mobile phone wallpapers. The Beacons also helped in driving traffic to the Nike shop, sending messages to introduce Nike’s HBL fan gear.

• Timeline

2018/03/10-2018/03/11

• Placement

HBL Finals at the Taipei Arena

• Scale

Maximum of 20,000 participants at once