| Title | HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL LEAGUE |
| Brand | NIKE |
| Product / Service | NIKE |
| Category | A02. Durable Consumer Goods |
| Entrant | MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA |
| Idea Creation | MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA |
| Media Placement | MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Joey Kang | Mindshare | General Manager |
| Tendayi Chivaro | Mindshare | Partner |
| Colleen Canty | Mindshare | Strategy Director |
| Selina Li | Mindshare | Strategic Planning Director |
| Velvet Yuan | Mindshare | Strategic Planning Manager |
| Harry Li | Mindshare | Strategic Planning Supervisor |
| Julian Leeper | Minshare | Planning Partner |
| Danny Lee | Nike | Greater China Media Director |
| Vicky Huang | Nike | Greater China Media Senior Manager |
| Barbara Shaw | Nike | Greater China Media Manager |
| Jennifer Zhu | Kinetic | Business Director |
| Pierre Xu | Kinetic | Director |
| Shawn Kai | Weiden + Kennedy | Account Manager |
| Stacy Juan | Nike | Greater China Media Manager |
While Nike’s usual NBA super stars spokespersons are highly popular in China, people who follow NBA super stars are hardcore basketball fans already. If you are not into basketball, Kevin Durant probably means some American basketball player, but you won’t go out and watch basketball game for him. Nike needs to create new source of inspiration.
48 schools entered the game, and 12 high schools entered the city-level semi finals. Leading up to the semi-finals, we created outdoor murals featuring all the semi final teams right outside of the high schools. On the No.1 sports platform Tencent Sports, the team scores were scrolling front and center next to all the NBA team scores. Across top sports news apps, we featured the games as well as MVPs from each game, again, next to news of all the top sports stars and teams. The players and games are also featured in China’s national sports channel CCTV 5 as well as local sports TV station. All the tickets to the games are sold out weeks in advance. We livestreamed the finals and semi-finals on Tencent for those who can’t get in and to and to amplify the impact.
The finals attracted 2.8 million views on Tencent, that’s more than views on CCTV for any NBA game. Games were engaging and inspired 118,000 comments during game on Tencent. Social media exploded as well, with 61 million viewership on the topic. The hype was soon picked up by mainstream sports channels. The players and games were featured in China’s national sports channel CCTV 5 as well as local sports TV stations.
Nike wants to bring basketball to a wider audience. By using media, we help it to reach all basketball fans and have them really enjoy the sports and become heros. All basketball heros received unprecedented attention, through out of door displays, TV news, livestream, and real basketball games. Social media exploded as well, with 61 million viewership on the topic. Through media,we made this new generation of players heroes.
We found an amazing insight - Many people’s first basketball experience and gateway to become a basketball fan is not any NBA game, it’s at their high school basketball match. Seeing a peer play, compete and win is powerful and much more emotional. It was clear – we need to make this new generation of players heroes. We organized the Nike High School Basketball League, and it’s not your typical high school basketball game.