When COVID-19 hit, sports and entertainment shut down. Thankfully, ESPN released Michael Jordan’s long-anticipated documentary, “The Last Dance,” which had been in development for over 20 years. Over 13M people tuned in every week, making it ESPN’s most-viewed documentary.

We saw an opportunity to engage sports fans in conversation by extending “The Last Dance” through Jordan Brand’s massive social media communities. We became entertainers first, marketers second.

During a time when sports as we knew them ceased to exist, we helped satisfy people’s desire for connection, creating opportunity for engagement and bringing people together.

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes and entertainers of all time. In his final season with the Chicago Bulls, he granted unparalleled access to a film crew to capture the story behind the scenes, under the condition that he could dictate when it was released. He waited over 20 years to tell his story.

Michael is also the namesake to Nike’s iconic sportswear line Jordan Brand. We saw “The Last Dance” as an opportunity to remind everyone of Michael’s greatness, and cement the brand’s cultural relevance for a new generation.

Rather than just think about social amplification of key moments throughout each episode, we set out to build conversation and community around the story as it was being told.

We produced a multi-layered campaign including original live content, UGC, celebrity brand partners, unrivaled access, and of course, tips to improve your game.

As millions rallied around the documentary, we rallied to engage the community in a conversation around this cultural moment.

We created a live recap show, “The Encore,” the brand’s first social livestream. ESPN Anchor Sage Steele hosted, while celebrity guests like filmmaker Spike Lee, NBA star Jayson Tatum, and musician DJ Khaled gave live reactions, shared insider MJ stories, and answered questions from fans. We even got a previously untold at-home birth story from musician Teyana Taylor.

We also built on the brand's legacy with an original series, “The Family,” which gave an inside look into the lives of Jordan’s roster of influential brand partners.

And of course, Jordan sneakers are a huge part of Michael's legacy. We encouraged “shoe and tell” via the hashtag #InMyJs, inviting fans to share which sneakers they were wearing while tuning in, and elevated the best submissions to our 21M followers on Instagram.

This was the biggest moment for Jordan Brand since Michael left the game of basketball. While “The Last Dance” reminded everyone why Michael is the greatest ever, we elevated the conversation, using this as a moment to show how Jordan Brand itself represents greatness.

We did this by bringing the biggest names in sports and culture together to share their POV on Michael, telling the stories of those who were inspired by him and are now blazing their own trail, and heroing the iconic products that continue to drive streetwear culture.

Additionally, at a time when people were craving connection during a period of isolation, we created a moment when people could come together by turning the one-way viewing experience into a live weekly social event that offered isolated sports fans an opportunity to engage.

The final output was four recurring 5-week content series spanning across all of Jordan’s social channels—resulting in over 25 videos.

This was a massive production on a very tight timeline.

When the pandemic hit, ESPN moved the release of the docuseries from June to April. We took the campaign from concept to execution in just 13 days, including casting 18 talents to star across the content, all of which required identification, outreach, negotiation and logistical planning to facilitate safe shooting.

On top of that, production requirements were changing in real time, and to bring this to life during the early days of the pandemic, talent had to shoot in their own locations. We sourced a platform that would allow us to push content to all of Jordan’s channels, and then got to work testing it. Additionally, we created production kits and trained talent on how to capture content remotely.

We put Jordan Brand at the center of the conversation, reminding people why Michael Jordan is synonymous with greatness. We reached millions of sports fans, got nods from dozens of celebs, generated headlines & permeated the conversation–solidifying the brand’s iconic status.

While we measured our success through engagements, video views & social conversation, there was another success story within our results: we sold mad shoes. Jordan Brand revenue soared by 15% to a record $3.6 billion.

Relevance was our goal. However, the incredible boom in sales & amazing headlines are key indicators of the campaign’s success at driving relevance.

25+ celebrity endorsements

25+ pieces of original content

8.5M livestreams

20M video views

10M engagements

8% engagement (+92% higher than benchmark)

Usage of #InMyJs increased 123X

13M people tuned in to watch the doc every week, making it the most-watched documentary in ESPN’s history

Record $3.6 billion in sales in 2020