Chicago Bulls 2024-25 Schedule Release

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

For the 2024-25 NBA Schedule Release, the Chicago Bulls worked with AT&T and a paper animation artist to produce a creative and artistic 48-second video that utilized a unique, multidirectional paper-flipping style to preview the season. With the league’s schedule release being one of the most anticipated days on the calendar, this was a crucial moment for the Bulls and AT&T to engage with fans and generate excitement for the upcoming season.

Through our unique paper animation-style schedule release video, we were able to successfully generate excitement and stand out among the other NBA teams.  The campaign garnered over 1.4 million impressions and more than 700,000 video views across social media platforms. On Instagram, the schedule release video received the highest number of video views across all partnered content so far this season.

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

With Schedule Release Day being a focal point for many sports teams, there have been occasions where teams have adopted similar approaches in announcing their schedule to fans. We wanted our schedule release video to:

* Be rewatchable: Captivating our audience in a way that leaves them wanting to watch it again and again.
* Be unique: Allowing our content to stand out against the rest of the teams both through our visual treatment and execution.
* Contain Easter Eggs: Creating hidden moments in our content that would allow us to garner favorable reactions and comments with our fans.

We stood out in leveraging the paper animation art form, which had not yet been featured in a sports schedule release setting. The video represented the intersection of art, basketball and storytelling that resonated strongly with our global fanbase.

Objective

For NBA fans, Schedule Release Day is one of the most anticipated days in the calendar, as it signals the arrival of their favorite team’s season. Whether they attend games in-person or tune in from around the world, on this day fans start planning how they will connect with the Chicago Bulls throughout the season.

With the support of AT&T since the 2021-22 season, the Bulls have created a schedule release that aims to both push creative boundaries and deepen our fan connection. Previous schedule releases won awards and earned rave reviews across social media, which in turn, fueled fan momentum into the season. 

For our 2024-25 schedule release, we wanted to create a video that would, once again, resonate strongly with our global fanbase but also continue to showcase our ingenuity across the larger social media landscape. Our key objectives included:
1. Push our creative boundaries to engage with fans locally and globally
2. Develop content and a story that will break through in a crowded landscape:
3. Spotlight and introduce players and key Bulls brand elements
4. Authentically incorporate AT&T branding and messaging
5. Highlight our schedule with key NBA opponents and cities

Strategy & Execution

It is crucial that we create schedule release content that connects with all our fans and sets the stage for season-long engagement. We worked with Singaporean artist Serene Teh, who specializes in a unique paper animation style where she illustrates individual images on paper and then hand-flips the paper in multiple directions and styles to tell a story.

We created a storyline that followed our schedule for the season, where current Bulls players joined our mascot, Benny The Bull, to defeat notable NBA foes in iconic cities across the country, culminating in a victory back in Chicago.

Throughout the video, we naturally integrated AT&T - from billboards to arena LEDs. With AT&T also presenting the Slam Dunk Contest at the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend, we also intentionally incorporated multiple dunks to tie into their broader sponsorship.

To build fan excitement and anticipation, we posted a series of graphics and schedule assets in similar hand-illustrated form, teasing the video before its release and giving fans a complete artistic experience on schedule release day.

Organizations

• Chicago Bulls
• AT&T

Links

•   Website

Credits

Luka Dukich
Vice President, Content
Chicago Bulls

Joe Pinch
Director, Content
Chicago Bulls

Nikko Tan
Senior Manager,Content
Chicago Bulls

Serena Yeh
Senior Manager, Digital Partnerships
Chicago Bulls

Ivan Hudson
Senior Coordinator, Digital Partnerships
Chicago Bulls

Danielle Finnerty
Senior Manager, Partnership Marketing
Chicago Bulls

Spencer Neville
Senior Account Executive, Partnership Marketing
Chicago Bulls

Cait Hicks
Editor, BullsTV
Chicago Bulls

Caroline Mattingly
Director, Brand Communications
Chicago Bulls

Jon Shoemaker
Executive Director, Creative Services
Chicago Bulls

Jimmy Michell
Manager, Content Design
Chicago Bulls

Andrew Herrington-Gilmore
Associate General Counsel
Chicago Bulls

Sarah Smith
Executive Director, Marketing
Chicago Bulls

Alex Compton
Manager, Integrated Marketing
Chicago Bulls

Serene Teh
Artist

Cody Kuecker
Lead Manager, Sponsorships + Experiential Marketing
AT&T

Quinn Hartmann
Manager of Brands
Wasserman