In the NBA, hype films are typically used to amp up fans by being bombastic, even flashy. After pitching and winning the opportunity to create an anthem piece for the Nets’ 10 year anniversary in Brooklyn, we saw an opportunity for something bigger than just a pep rally. As a transplant team still working to form a bond with their passionate, but demanding home-borough, the Nets seemed to have an opportunity to use this anthem film for more. Rather than producing another hype reel of the team’s star-studded roster, we opted to celebrate “The Brooklyn Way” by passing the mic to the community– demonstrating that this team isn’t just located in Brooklyn… It belongs to Brooklyn.
Rather than producing another hype reel of the team’s star-studded roster, we opted to celebrate “The Brooklyn Way” by passing the mic to the community– demonstrating that this team isn’t just located in Brooklyn… It belongs to Brooklyn. We combined unscripted interviews from the Nets’ first “lifelong” fans with intimate visuals shot by world renowned photographer Andre Wagner, all scored by an Oscar nominated and award winning composer Emile Mosseri, to create a love letter to Brooklyn. The 10 year olds speak to the highs, lows, and overall beauty of growing up in Brooklyn– drawing perfect parallels to the Nets and their journey over the last decade. Despite having a small budget, each production partner and member of the team worked tirelessly to bring this piece to life because of a shared belief in the power of what the future of the borough had to say.
We used this opportunity to also give the team a communal rallying cry: “The Brooklyn Way” which is incorporated throughout the campaign’s design system. It’s currently painted on the side of their stadium and scattered throughout the borough.
All of this was done with a production budget roughly half the size of our typical shoots.
The film was launched in-arena and on social at the start of the season and is played before every home game. On Twitter, the film performed +144% above the franchise's average, +9% on Instagram and to date, has garnered 695K impressions on a mostly organic run. But perhaps more importantly, has marked a clear turning-point toward a more meaningful bond between the Nets and Brooklyn.
