Kevin Durant's Lawyer Spoof Acts For Sprint Both On-Court & In-Court

When NBA super star Kevin Durant started tweeting to his nine million followers about going to law school earlier this month eyebrows were raised and it seemed certain something unusual was afoot.

think during this @NBAAllStar break I’m going to get my law degree

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 9, 2015

I’m going to work over here…#LawSchoolGrind #IGotMyReasons pic.twitter.com/t6YLd5wSXl

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 10, 2015

Could the 26-year old Oklahoma City Thunder player really be preparing for his post-basketball career?

(After all, he did bring back his much-discussed school backpack to his press conferences.)

But his last tweet suggested that the 2013/14 NBA MVP was involved in some kind of stunt.

After all, ‘Seat Pleasant University’ doesn’t even exist.

It turns out that the fictitious college was invented as Durant’s alma mater by NBA communications partner Sprint and his law school tweets were merely the first trails for the brand’s new campaign – NBA Half Court – which broke during the NBA All-Star Weekend.

The whole story became clearer when Sprint rolled out an accompanying online teaser on the Friday before the All-Star game.

Sprint’s spoof spot claimed Durant had gone through law school in four days and now was ready to perform both on-court and in-court.

The central campaign commercial itself then aired on game day itself – featuring Durant’s legal mind helping rival Verizon and AT&T customers cut their wireless costs.

This was followed up by a shorter, 30-second ad trumpeting that “Kevin Durant & Associates are the league leaders in getting wireless rates torn in half, courtesy of Sprint”.

Creative the fun ads all parody those frequent plaintiff lawyer commercials that litter US television.

‘I’ve been working with Sprint for several years now and we challenged ourselves to do something different for our newest commercial,’ explains Durant.

‘The “Cut Your Bill in Half” ad was a fun spot for me to shoot and I loved being in the courtroom and playing ‘KD, Esq.’

The whole activation was part of Sprint’s wider, ongoing ‘Cut Your Bill In Half’ campaign (which launched late last year).

Comment

This is a great example of how to use a set of sports league rights (NBA) and leverage interest in a specific property event (All-Star Weekend) and an athlete ambassador (Durant) within the context of a wider marketing campaign (Cut Your Bill In Half).

This is Durant’s fourth year as a Sprint ambassador and these commercials follow his previous spots which include 2013’s,

and 2012’s.

Durant has an impressive line-up of sponsorship deals. As well as Sprint, he is currently working with Nike, Sonic, Kind Bars, Orange Leaf Yogurt and Zero ice Water

Sprint itself is currently in its third season as the Official Wireless Partner of the NBA and its primary engagement approach is to reach the league’s millions of fans through unique and compelling content.

As part of its partnership, Sprint customers can enjoy unlimited NBA action for free with the Sprint NBA Game Time app (which delivers live home and away radio broadcasts, game highlights and video alerts as well as real time stats and scores).

Sprint also features in the Sprint Halftime Report on both TNT and ABC throughout the season.

As well as its NBA deal and its Durant partnership, Sprint’s other basketball activation include sponsoring the Boston Celtics and an ambassador relationship with TNT NBA presenter Kenny Smith.

Links

Sprint Half Off Website:

http://www.Sprint.com/halfoff

Sprint Half Off Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/sprint

#KDLaw

Sprint Half Off Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/sprint

Sprint YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/sprintnow

Kevin Durant Twitter

@KDTrey5