While we had been a sponsor of the NBA, to fans we were no more than a logo on a backboard. With over 48 sponsors, many with cultural cachet and ingrained presence in basketball, how could we break through the clutter and begin building equity with the fanbase? Every fan understands the role of a brand like Gatorade or Nike in basketball, but why would they care about a brand that sold hotel rooms?

With our NBA work we aimed to distinctly embed ourselves in NBA culture and increase brand favorability and consideration amongst the valuable fan audience.

We open on Barinholtz who is very eager to show off his new basketball shoes and how they’re about to help him with his job, aiding him in tending to guests faster and more nimble than ever before. His colleague, Sam Richardson then proceeds to show off his shoes, dubbed “Dressketball Shoes.” Barinholtz is impressed, but sadly Richardson, in an attempt to prop up his leg to better showcase his shoes, can’t get his leg down and is forced to work the rest of the day in a very awkward position. The storyline acts as connective tissue, injecting Hotels.com into basketball culture.

68% of NBA fans have a favorite player – the highest level among fans of any pro-sport (vs. only 48% for Major League Baseball).

We understood that our way into NBA culture wasn’t the teams, or the league, but the players.

However, if budget constraints did not allow for direct access to players, how could we still embed ourselves in player culture to connect with fans?

The answer: sneaker culture.

Knowing the importance of footwear among NBA players, we dramatized sneaker culture by unexpectedly tying it to the performance of hotel staff.

By the end of the season, we boosted one of our essential brand attributes amongst NBA fans by a margin of +10% (compared to general population) who saw us as 'an expert in travel'. We had also moved upwards the harder-to-shift metrics of consideration and favourability by +4% each. Given that general population media and a campaign was running alongside our effort, the difference between fan and non-fans; as well as our increase in sponsorship awareness meant that we could isolate this back to our effort.