Project: Return of the NBA Playoff media promo for Rakuten.

Agency: GMR

Mission: Create an identity and voice for the promo within Rakuten’s voice but also speaking to NBA fans - all while working in conjunction with Rakuten’s in-house creative team. Oh yeah, there’s no NBA player licensing (outside of Steph Curry) - so, no leaning into specific players. Plus, posts were written prior to the playoffs. Pretty good guess on that Luka triple-double, eh?

Hats worn: Copy direction, raconteur and wordsmith.

What was Ryan thinking? Rakuten sought visibility during the 2020 NBA Playoffs (aka “The Bubble” games) with a promo running on Rakuten, NBA and influencer social channels rewarding fans for simply watching. The gist is when a player scores 40 or more points in a game, Rakuten unlocks 40 NBA prizes to fans nationwide. All sorts of cool shit: a virtual Steph Curry meet-and-greet, $5,000 in cash, autographed merch and so on.

As a card-carrying NBA nut, Ryan genuinely enjoyed the concept of this and really relished the thought of bringing it to life.

He balanced timeless basketball vernacular with what he heard when he played - and what he hears now as a fan. Then he thought about something statistical and ownable not only for Rakuten, but fans in general; something they can be a part of. Something that’s a part of the basketball lexicon.

#Drop40. Could be a noun, verb, prize drop or achievement. “Dude messed around and got a triple-double plus a #Drop40!” “Oh shit! I unlocked a #Drop40.” (Pretty sure Rakuten wouldn’t approve of the last one.)

From there, he infused #Drop40 into a promo landing page (www.rakuten.com/drop40), emails, social posts and a TV spot that dropped as the Playoffs unfolded.

Finally if you’re keeping score at home, there were 13 #Drop40s during the playoffs, the #Drop40 hashtag was used almost 8,000 times, plus 27,000 contest entries and 100,000 microsite visits from August to October.

Kris London promo: https://twitter.com/iamkrislondon/status/1309221396736692224