During Kobe’s 20-year in the NBA he garnered a lot of affection: players, coaches, fans and teammates. During that same 20-year period he also made a lot of enemies: players, coaches, fans, even teammates. He was one of the most popular athletes in the world, yet one of the most polarizing. Whether you loved or hated him we knew everyone had something to say about Kobe. And how do you celebrate a maligned cultural icon? You make a holiday for him! We created Mamba Day, an entire day to commemorate your love or hate for Kobe Bryant, set to happen on Kobe’s last game ever.

Ignite the Conversation:

The Mamba Day conversation launched with an unprecedented collaboration of the Nike family, an exclusive video tribute featuring Lebron, Tiger, Neymar, and 31 other athletes sharing their thoughts on Kobe using #mambaday.

We also created “Last Word” posters that each athlete posted to their social channels. These posters promoted the individual athlete’s last word and solidified Nike’s ownership of #mambaday.

Own Game Day:

To help Nike own the game day conversation, on Twitter we launched the world’s first branded athlete emoji. Every time anyone used #MambaDay”, a Kobe shoe emoji would auto-populate.

On Snapchat, we ran a National filter featuring Kobe with his hand to his ear, to prompt fans to have a last word in a Snap.

And in partnership with NBA players and Nike athletes, we ran a 24/7 response lab creating iconic content in real time, following Kobe’s every step of the way.

• 2.9 Billion owned and earned impressions making Kobe’s last game unequivocally owned by Nike

• Nike’s #MambaDay became the unofficial-official hashtag of the day, with over 2.5 million uses on Twitter - over 1.5 million more than the NBA’s #ThankYouKobe hashtag

• #MambaDay trended #1 on all major social platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Vine

• Snapchat filter was viewed 266 million times (most in Snapchat history) and used by 6.9 million unique Snapchat users

• Nike achieved #1 in conversation volume, with 14.8 million owned social audience

• Some of the world’s biggest celebrities and influencers adopted and used campaign tactics organically: Ellen DeGeneres, Drake, Lil’ Wayne, Bill Clinton, and Justin Timberlake.

• Even our competitors couldn’t stay away, with Bryce Harper (Under Armour), Dwayne Wade (Li-Ning), and Aaron Rodgers (Adidas) using the Nike hashtag in social posts.

• And, we broke Twitter with record setting tweet volume in the final moments of Kobe’s last game.

Our starting point was to understand how our target (basketball fans) felt about Kobe. A series of fan interviews, paired with some historical social listening revealed one core truth. When it comes to Kobe, he’s either the hero you love or the villain you hate. He is the most polarizing player ever to play the game and this intense passion for either viewpoint was undeniable. And every fan has something to say when it comes to the Kobe.

But social listening painted a different story as more timely barometer of fan sentiment. We found that social conversation had fell off a cliff, as fans simply felt bad for the aging legend. This hero/villain conversation had lost steam.

The strategy was to reignite the hero/villain conversation and inspire people to share their final word on Kobe Bryant. If you love him, cheer. If you hate him, boo him one last time.

Kobe Bryant was retiring from an illustrious 20-year career. He was one of the most popular athletes in the world on top of being one of the most dominant players in basketball. During his peak, he reached Michael Jordan levels of marketability, propelled by his own signature shoe line and its iconic advertising. He also reached Jordan levels of basketball lore with his own memorable moments on the court. Nike wanted to pay tribute to one of their most successful athletes of all time. Coming off the heel’s of Jordan Brand’s Derek Jeter RE2PECT campaign they needed something that wasn’t just a tear jerker. They needed something that felt as big as Kobe Bryant himself. They needed something to leverage the massive base of Kobe Brant obsessives.