The Brief

SonicBoom, Korea professional basketball team of KT (Korea Telecom), was ranked as bottom all year in 2008-2009 season. It seemed to be same situation in upcoming 2009-2010 season, no star player and no make-up for team strength. However, everything changed in 2010, SonicBoom performed a miracles and ranked 2nd in regular league games. SonicBoom, a team that was barely recognized, finally had a chance to make the playoffs.

Creative Execution

KT and the cheering brigade came up with a very surprising and effective way to make SonicBoom a big issue. 18 campers, which is the same number with team's entry number for the playoffs, were wrapped with images of the players, the coach and supporting messages for the team. Starting from the day before the game through the game day, 18 campers all together traveled about 450 kilometer long highway from Seoul to Busan, where the game was held. It had a big meaning for KT and fans of SonicBoom, whom voluntarily came up with ideas to support the team. They decorated the campers by the themselves with truly sincere messages that would cheer up the team.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

KT along with the fans of SonicBoom prepared a small performance to celebrate the miracles that the team worked for; On March 20, 2010, when the first game of the playoffs opened, fans of SonicBoom headed to the stadium to cheer the team in a way nobody ever expected.

Results

SonicBoom lost the game on that day. On the other hand, the creative and passionate cheering became a big issue across the country, which brought impassion to the team and KT's corporate images. Korea's representative media paid attention to SonicBoom and the 18 campers. As one of the leading newspapers in Korea quoted, "Everything was perfect except for the game result" the groundbreaking idea to support SonicBoom was good enough to impress not only the SonicBoom but the whole basketball fans. This special cheering event succeeded in increasing as awareness of SonicBoom and became an opportunity to open a new world of cheering squad's culture.