In late 2020, CarMax became the Official Auto Retailer of the NBA and Official Sponsor of the NBA on TNT Pre-Game show. As an immediate next step, 360i and CarMax engaged B/R & House of Highlights, looking for a unique way to reach a different,, younger audience than TV to extend their partnership in 2021.
After receiving the CarMax digital brief from 360i, it was clear that the core of the partnership needed to center around Fan Engagement. Our mission is to always serve the modern sports fan, and B/R and HoH pride themselves at driving maximum organic fan engagement across Social, giving sports fans all they need to see in the sports world when they want it...the way it should be!
The 2021 House of Highlights Moment Of The Year was a natural fit as the program was built to allow fans themselves to vote for the most moment of the year (the way it should be), versus traditional NBA awards that are voted on by journalists
Throughout the 2021 NBA season, we identified the most thumb-stopping, group-chat-sharing, engagement-worthy highlights to crown the season’s Moment of The Year - with CarMax at the center of it all. These top-tier highlights not only garnered an incredible amount of viewership from our audience but, by putting the voting in the hands of our loyal fans, it helped to further the connection and loyalty to CarMax, as the brand that made it all possible.
The HoH MOTY 2021 Sponsorship offered CarMax 100% ownership of all 8x of the IG Stories and 4x In-Feed posts within the package. We then worked with our Linear counterparts to plus up the offering by announcing each month's winner on NBA on TNT Tuesdays, with the IGS Call-to-Action card referring users to tune-in for the announcement!
Elements:
Interactive IG Stories:
January MoTM Story (2/4)
February MoTM Story (3/4)
March MoTM Story (4/1)
April MoTM Story (5/6)
Finals Round 1 (5/20)
Finals Round 2 (5/27)
Finals Round 3 (6/3)
Finals Round 4 (6/10)
IG Carousel/In-Feed Posts:
First Half Regular Season “Best Of” (3/9)
Regular Season “Best Of” (5/16)
Final Bracket “Best Of” (6/3)
Final Winner Reveal! (6/29)
The CarMax x 2021 HoH MOTY was a perfect example of an Editorial franchise that can drive meaningful impact for CarMax as a brand partner, when a main campaign KPI is engagement. From a delivery perspective:
19.1M Views > 219% against contracted delivery goal!
4.2m Engagements
11.4M views > 522% against contracted delivery goal!
960k Engagements
31.6M Cross-Platform Views
5.1M Cross-Platform Engagements
280% To Goal Against Guaranteed Views
And most importantly, CarMax has renewed their Sponsorship for 2022, with a new addition of TikTok distribution!