USA Basketball All-Access Vertical Video Series

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

Building on long-standing relationships and a track-record as a leader in the space, our NBA Social/Digital team utilized time with the best basketball players on the planet strategically to create access-lending, highly visual and engaging vertical video content en route to USA Basketball’s Olympic Gold Medal.

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

As an account with nearly 90 million followers, the @ NBA Instagram has an average view count of just over 2 million per reel. To tally nearly 2 Billion views in roughly a month span is uncharted territory - not just for us but the industry at large.

At the NBA, we have always strived to set the standard for content. Leaning into such an evergreen capture lens amidst such a historic Olympic moment cemented in time and resulting in gold allowed us to continue to share and highlight this content beyond the medal ceremony.

We reposted the video showcasing the best celebrations after Steph Curry hit the “Night Night” during the Gold Medal Game. We captured Jayson Tatum & Curry’s simultaneous rituals in the same way - now as foes in the NBA - to carousel on Instagram from when they were teammates here.

And most of all - our relationships built only led to better access as we were able to work with the best basketball players on the planet to create access-lending, highly visual and engaging vertical video content. We met the moment for 6 weeks - cutting through the noise in genuine ways repeatedly.

Objective

It all began with a question. How can we create gold-standard content showcasing these superstars in all of their greatness, while being cognizant of these hyper-focused Olypmpian’s time? Furthermore: What makes sense for our brand given our global audience and the magnitude of the moment, considering the content restrictions at hand?

The answers: Think evergreen. What will make sense on a timeline, no matter the time? We only have this group together once - headlined by LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. It’s not just about capturing, but also curating content in a way that brings the rest of the world inside the day-to-day of the 2024 Team USA Olympic Basketball Team and everything that made it so special.

We created a list of questions - asking 1-2x per city throughout the 4-city, 6-week Olympic endeavor. We started asking players if they could spin a ball on their finger, requiring just 10 seconds of highly visual answering on the photos set that they’re already on. We asked who has the best nickname and celebration on the team to point to all of the iconic monikers and rituals these superstars possess. And that’s just the captures we could plan on…

Strategy & Execution

Create moments that cut through the noise. Especially during the Olympics, there is a ton of content commanding eyeballs. How do we make sure ours separates itself?

Ask questions that no one has asked before - or could never have the chance to have answered A) by all of these individuals and B) all in one room. Everything was filmed vertically with a focus on the platforms where our fans are particularly engaged (Instagram). We asked questions as guys wrapped practice and were sitting on the bench, which resulted in organic moments that fans were able to see on social; a moment amongst them, not individual interviews.

Great content requires both correct timing and adequate preparation. How can we naturally capture what’s happening in front of us in a creative way? Whether we were at practice or games, we were ready to ask the right questions, identify opportunities in real-time, and share with fans quickly. After capturing, we edited in a way that lent itself to engage audiences immediately, within the first 3 seconds, and we provided closed-captioning to help the user follow along.

Our strategy and execution went beyond what we imagined results-wise.

Organizations

• NBA
• USA Basketball

Credits

Jenny Fischer
NBA Social/Digital On-Site Coverage Lead
NBA

Jim Poorten
NBA Social Content Publishing Senior Manager
NBA

Bob Carney
Senior Vice President, Social and Digital Content
NBA

Adam Fedorko
Vice President, Social and Digital Content Creation
NBA

Ashley Atwell
Associate Vice President, Social and Emerging Media Lead
NBA

Justin D’Apolito
Director, Social Content Lead
NBA

Leah Berry
Senior Manager, Social and Digital Content Creation Management
NBA

Carly Nevis
Manager, DTC and Vertical Content Creation
NBA

Samantha Linczyc
Associate Manager, Social Content, Meta Platforms Manager
NBA

Adam Brody
Manager, Social and Digital Content Creation
NBA

Anthony Ottoman
Manager, Social and Digital Content Creation
NBA

Will Brown
NBA Social Content, Senior Manager - Vertical Platforms
NBA

Simon Cherin-Gordon
NBA Social Content Manager - X
NBA