DESCRIBE THE CREATIVE IDEA

For the past 30 years, Spalding has been part of every last-second buzzer beater, MVP performance and iconic moment in the NBA. Yet…it had become so synonymous with the game that it was just there, blending in.

Our goal was to take the brand from passively respected to actively loved with a global campaign, Spalding’s first in more than 20 years. To do it, we launched #TrueBelievers, a movement to inspire inner-confidence within everyday athletes.

DESCRIBE THE EXECUTION

#TrueBelievers is an honest and authentic message intended build a global tribe of consumers that share our love of the game. A True Believer athlete is one with the raw unwavering, uncompromising inner confidence needed to defy all odds and push beyond all obstacles.

The rollout plan for this integrated campaign put extraordinary importance on the way we used influencers and strategic partners on social media to tell the story of #TrueBelievers. With their help, we quickly built a tribe of brand advocates to spark social conversation. We introduced the campaign with a Periscope Pre-Game Q&A featuring our NBA Superstars, Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan, who shed light on what it meant to be a True Believer and encouraged fans to follow Spalding on social media to be the first to join the movement. The following day, we re-introduced the rest of the world to the #TrueBelievers with digital takeovers of The Bleacher Report and NBA.com. The media blitz, along with our influencer and strategic partners, drove people to The Nickname Generator – where we welcomed people to the tribe with a custom nickname based on their mindset and style of play.

Within the first 4 weeks of launch, our #TRUEBELIEVER movement has garnered over 43MM impressions, increased social media engagement by 2500% and boosted purchase intent by 13%. Early indicators that this brand is going from passively respected to actively loved.