NBA Canada partnered with The Local Collective and the WNBA to celebrate the league’s first game in Canada sponsored by banking outfit Tangerine – between the Chicago Sky and the Minnesota Lynx at the Scotiabank Arena – with a multi-channel marketing burst called ‘Signed, Toronto’ which invited fans to show their love for the game and was spearheaded by a 12-foot-tall, larger-than-life WNBA logo sculpture.
Launched to build buzz and to shift tickets for the first WNBA game north of the border, the week-long campaign was led by experiential activations backed by digital and social assets.
NBA Canada partnered with The Local Collective to bring this larger-than-life moment to Canada and it was anchored around a bespoke website and backed by a parallel awareness and ticket sales social, print and PR campaign.
The phased rollout ran prior to, during and after the game and at its heart was a bespoke sculpture which travelled through different locations in downtown Toronto before arriving at its eventual endpoint outside the Scotiabank Arena.
Fans (of all ages) were encouraged to mark the moment in history by adding their signatures to the sculpture and signing was incentivised through the give-away of a WNBA branded Sharpie for all those who left their John Hancock.
The Sky and Lynx players and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert also all signed the sculpture.
While a series of daily giveaways – courtesy of bank Tangerine (the WNBA’s first foundational partner in Canada) – offered fans a chance to win tickets to the sold-out game.
“We’re so proud to host the first WNBA Canada Game presented by Tangerine, showcasing the top women’s basketball players in the world and further inspiring young girls and women to play basketball. With the support of 19 partners, we engaged fans across the nation to mark this historic game,” explained NBA Canada Senior VP Leah MacNab. “In Toronto, fans gravitated towards ‘Signed, Toronto’ WNBA logo sculpture, where fans could leave their mark on the celebration.”
“This is a monumental moment in Canadian sports, and we thought the only way you can properly celebrate it, is by creating a monument for the moment,” added The Local Collective Founder and CCO Matt Litzinger. “Inviting fans and the athletes to sign this piece of history felt like the only way to really capture the excitement for this game.”
“We work with a lot of brands who impact culture in a significant way, and it’s so critical that authenticity shines through,” Litzinger continued. “Storytelling for the NBA is an amazing experience, and the strategy to get us here is grounded in those really intimate experiences, that helped us deliver this larger-than-life result”
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This is old-school list building and it seemed to succeed as the event drew large crowds and saw thousands of fans sign the statue, while the campaign contributing to making the game a total sell-out. Indeed, following the game, NBA Canada announced that the WNBA Canada Game was the highest attended pre-season game in league history with 19,923 fans.
The game’s lead sponsor Tangerine (a Canadian ‘direct’ bank and subsidiary of Scotiabank) is committed to ‘Pushing Women’s Sport Forward’ and places this commitment as a key pillar in its marketing strategy.
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