During the 2015 Panini NBA Rookie Photo Shoot held last August, we brought more than 30 of the top NBA rookies to New York for the purposes of creating their 2015-16 NBA trading cards. We wanted to take advantage of our access to these young superstars by creating a compelling, Instagram-focused initiative that would have a huge payoff at the end of the day.
Our primary objectives: 1) Engage users on Instagram who couldn't be at the event by showcasing these players' otherworldly talents; 2) Generate awareness for our new NBA digital trading card app: Panini NBA Dunk; 3) Have fun. To that end, we created a one-day spectacle dubbed the #PaniniDunk Challenge.
As you'll see below, the daylong spectacle was a smashing success that generated tons of buzz and some of the most compelling -- and widely embraced -- Instagram videos we've ever posted.
We made sure to explain to each player that this #PaniniDunk challenge was definitely a competition among players. That sparked their creative juices and brought out the best in each of them. We asked each player to perform his best #PaniniDunk trick shot or slam dunk. We recorded each shot and had the players publish to their respective Instagram accounts, tagging @PaniniAmerica and using the #PaniniDunk hash tag. At the end of the day, the two players whose posts had the most likes faced off in the #PaniniDunk finale streamed live on Facebook's newly launched video streaming app Facebook Mentions - making Panini America one of the first brands to leverage the new video platform.
The competition kept the Instagram accounts for both the players and Panini America buzzing all day long, generating more than 105,000 likes in the span of about five hours. Each of the players took pride in their entry and spent as much time as needed to nail the perfect shot. If a shot required 10, 15, 20, 30 takes, so be it.
The results from the individual players posts including the live showdown between Minnesota Timberwovles Rookie Karl Anthony Towns and Miami Heat Rookie Justise Winslow were staggering. More than 105,000 Instagram video likes in the span of five hours. Nearly 15 million video impressions (14,908,945). A total reach of more than 9.5 million (9,551,199) and 3.1 million video views (3,165,463). More than 641,000 total clicks.
