On 15 May, ahead of the 19 May new season start, WNBA rolled out an integrated ‘More Than Game’ tip-off campaign led by a hero spot and a new tagline.
Aiming to build awareness and excitement round the WNBA 27th season, the marketing burst builds on the league’s 2022’s ‘More Than’ theme which explores how the rights owner and its athletes compete fiercely on the court and also with anything and everything else that comes their way.
The idea behind ‘More Than Game’ is to take what fans already know and love about the league and then shows that there’s even more to it: more dimensions, more super natural, more passion, more practice, more perfection and more primetime.
The executions also feature the copy line: ‘This is for the culture #MoreThanGame’.
Blending sport, music and culture, the spearhead commercial features rising female hip-hop star Coi Leray who narrates the spot over her 2023 hit ‘Players’ – an urban female anthem which reached the US ‘Billboard Hot 100’ Top 10. Leray’s energetic, yet smooth delivery highlights the WNBA as a fearless sisterhood and features clips of the league’s top talent showcasing their skills.
“This league is a sisterhood. It’s way more than just a game. It’s an empire. A fearless empire,” states Leray. “More sideswiping steals? Check! We got hoop, drive and passion. Easy. More buckets? Extra sauce? Order up. More dimension-defining dimes. More dancing than a Saturday night. Now this is what I call prime time.”
The star ballers featured are led by WNBA champion A’ja Riyadh Wilson: a forward with the Las Vegas Aces and the USA Women’s National Basketball Team.
‘More Than Game’ debuted on 15 May across the league’s social platforms, before debuting on air on 18 May during the NBA Western Conference Finals Game 2 on ESPN.
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The campaign launched alongside reimagined and reworked WNBA global digital platforms – WNBA App and WNBA.com – which were developed in collaboration with Deloitte: one of the WNBA’s inaugural group of ‘WNBA Changemaker corporate partners’.
According to a WNBA statement: “Developed as an enhanced one-stop source for fans with live games, schedules, real-time stats, score updates and standings, the new platforms bring WNBA fans closer to the game and their favorite teams and players than ever.”
“The reimagined WNBA App and WNBA.com delivers a more accessible, immersive, and authentic experience to our fans,” added WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison. “With Deloitte’s insights and collaboration, we have been able to increase capacity and supercharge our output, taking our digital products to the next level.”
The league’s ‘WNBA League Pass’ is a new direct-to-consumer subscription offering integrated into the new WNBA App offering users the ability to stream live games on phones, tablets or connected devices.
This is set to be a key season for the league with a record-high 40 games per team (up four games from the previous high of 36 last season) and several rule changes. Indeed, the WNBA will surely strongly consider further expansion after its sell-out preseason game in Toronto.
WNBA games this season will air on ESPN, ABC, CBS, Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, NBA TV, Meta Horizon Worlds and Twitter, while the WNBA also recently unveiled a multi-year media pact with The EW Scripps Company to televise games on Friday nights during the regular season on ION.
‘More Than’ replaced the WNBA’s previous 2021 ‘Count It’ brand platform and 2019’s ‘Make Way’ brand refresh.
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