NBA transitions from tipoff campaign to 'Big'

The NBA last week rolled out its new “Big” advertising campaign, replacing its “Where Amazing Happens” campaign after five seasons.

The “Big” effort launched on Jan. 19 and comes after the league used a campaign labeled “Big Things Are Coming” to promote the start of this year’s lockout-shortened season.

The new “Big” campaign debuted with three 30-second spots featuring all-stars Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. Additional spots with other players are expected later in the season.

The NBA’s agency of record is Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, which also created the acclaimed “Where Amazing Happens” campaign.

“We like to refresh the brand every five years or so,” said Danny Meiseles, executive vice president and executive producer, production, programming and broadcasting for the NBA. “The ‘Big’ campaign is a simple message about our game and where our game is. We felt it was a way to speak about our game in a different way. In trying to figure out where we wanted our brand to go, we kept coming back to ‘Big.’”

The new campaign will run across all NBA broadcast and social media platforms. The league’s teams and league-level marketing partners are expected to activate around the campaign, as well.

Meiseles said each of the three spots features footage of the player backed with a description of the action along with music from Primus. The debut spot features Rondo in slow motion as he dives out of bounds for a loose ball.

“The focus on Rondo is that he plays big,” Meiseles said.

Notable is that the campaign initially does not use the league’s biggest stars, such as LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, though Meiseles did not rule out using those players in future commercials.

“Creatively, we wanted to get [the first three] spots out first,” Meiseles said. “Obviously, we will focus on key guys in the creative process and we know we have four more months to focus on other players.”