The challenge? Get people excited that the Playoffs are here again! Inspire the NBA’s biggest fans to bring their friends into the fold. Find the casual, I-watch-occasionally fans and remind them why this is their favorite time of the year.

So how did we decide we’d bottle up the feeling? We dove deep into researching fan culture and player motivations, then gave an (only slightly, okay!) exaggerated look at what players, fans, and cities do when they go into Playoff Mode. We see Playoff contenders Julius Randle, Donovan Mitchell, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Jamal Murray taking their skills to the next, NEXT level. We see excitable mascots, frenzied fans, and spaces where NBA lore has entirely taken over. We take viewers from Sacramento to space, then from suburbia all the way to Serbia — seeing the entire hoopiverse going wild while leaving tons of Easter Eggs for fans to find along the way. All to remind everyone that whether you’re on the court or on the couch, it’s time to get into Playoff Mode.

We’ve all felt that palpable energy shift when the NBA goes from regular season action to postseason madness. We see the sneaky screens hidden under fancy dinner tables, the deepened hometown pride, and the complete team-color-takeover that infiltrates every town. No city is so lively, no fan so enthralled, and no player is so engaged as one whose team has made it to the Playoffs. So, we decided we should bottle up this feeling and put it in a film to honor Playoff fans around the world and get them pumped up for the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas. NBA PLAYOFFS.

We knew that once we reminded people of the superhuman lengths their favorite players go to turn it up a notch during the Playoffs, they wouldn’t need much more of a push. And we were right. After 439,142,358 impressions, the 2023 postseason quickly became the most watched in the past 25 years, and casual watchers were 13% more likely to tune-in after seeing the film. Other leagues even began to adopt the “Playoff Mode” terminology but only the NBA’s posts garnered thousands of reposts and comments, while Playoff Mode became the rallying cry of every fan and team.