The Suns on Friday were expected to start launch “one of the league's first localized ad campaigns, if ... not the first one,” since a tentative agreement to end the lockout was reached, according to Paul Coro of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. The team was to begin running "Time to Rise" ads in print and radio commercials voiced by team announcer Al McCoy. City billboards are “coming too with the back image of Steve Nash with arms extended inside the flame wings of the Phoenix bird.” Nash “remains the face of the franchise for everyone who doubted he would continue to be this season.” Suns President Brad Casper said, "It's a call to get on with it and elevate our game. We all had this emotional, visceral reaction to it (the slogan 'Time to Rise'). It's harkening back to Rocky Balboa days. There's something about someone with their hands in the air." Casper said that the Suns staff “is aware it has to win some Suns fans and this soft multimedia approach is just the beginning, especially with some leaguewide ventures that will be coming out too” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 12/2).
THINKING BIG: The Bobcats took out a full-page ad in yesterday’s Charlotte Observer touting the team’s Open House event on Thursday. The ad included the copy, “Big things are coming!” The tag is part of the NBA’s leaguewide ad campaign that will run across all NBA broadcast and social media platforms (THE DAILY).
