Sports video games take a backseat to big action games with big storylines. The NBA had to break out of the sports game category and create a sense of drama by placing the gamer at the center of a first-person NBA adventure. With Kevin Durant as NBA 2K15’s cover athlete and about to win the MVP trophy, we capitalized on the occasion and launched the Your Time Has Come campaign. It trended worldwide instantly.

But this wasn't just about Kevin Durant. As a first-person NBA adventure game, NBA 2K wanted to let gamers know their time has come to battle for greatness. Then, wherever people were talking about basketball, we inserted ourselves into the conversation, creating a sense of anticipation and drama.

When new game features were announced, like Face Scan, NBA 2K created a Beard Guru to get James Harden ready to scan his face. And later, when people were having issues with the new feature and starting to vent online, NBA 2K changed the conversation and encouraged them to download their failed face scans as Halloween masks. Even the NBA athletes played along. The campaign trended worldwide 33 times in six months.

After launch, we kept the momentum going with an in-game loading film reminding gamers their time has come to become the next MVP. NBA 2K also launched verified park tournaments where gamers could play against real NBA athletes. The playing field was leveled and everyone had the same chance to prove their time had come.

We wanted to bring the game’s exciting NBA world to life, and we did across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We exposed gamers to the NBA world they were craving and went behind the scenes to show a side of players, announcers, and coaches they don’t usually see. We created a dialogue with fans where gamers and players were on the same playing level and everyone had an equal chance to prove their time had come.

NBA 2K15 trended worldwide 33 times in six months. All that social attention equaled sales. In a year when sales of sports games went down, NBA 2K15 was killing it. The game had the largest number of presale orders in history, up 20%. Not to mention Facebook engagement was up 30%; Twitter up 70%; Instagram up 550%. And the client was feeling up in general.