CARMELO ANTHONY'S M8 NYC FLIGHT SHOE: "THE EXPLOSIVE GAME" Outdoor Advert by Wieden + Kennedy New York

Type of entry: Branded Entertainment
Category: Best use or integration of experiential events
Advertiser: JORDAN
Product/Service: CARMELO ANTHONY'S M8 NYC FLIGHT SHOE
Agency: WIEDEN+KENNEDY New York, USA
Advertiser JORDAN
Product CARMELO ANTHONY'S M8 NYC FLIGHT SHOE
Entrant WIEDEN+KENNEDY New York, USA
Type of Entry: Branded Entertainment
Category: Best use or integration of experiential events
Title: THE EXPLOSIVE GAME
Advertiser/Client: JORDAN
Product/Service: CARMELO ANTHONY'S M8 NYC FLIGHT SHOE
Entrant Company: WIEDEN+KENNEDY New York, USA
DM/Advertising Agency: WIEDEN+KENNEDY New York, USA
2nd DM/Advertising Agency: KLIP COLLECTIVE Philadelphia, USA
Music/Sound Design: Brian Emrich (Human New York)
Line Producer: Anthony Moschini (Klip Collective)
Executive Producer: Michelle Barbieri (Klip Collective)
Director Of Production: Phil Erney (Klip Collective)
Director Of Photography: Pier Nicola D’Amico (Klip Collective)
Director: Ricardo Rivera (Klip Collective)
Event Production Company: (Relevant)
Creative Director: Andy Ferguson (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Art Director: Azsa West (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Brand Strategist: Ben Alter (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Creative Director: Brandon Mugar (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Senior Producer: Dan Blaney (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Copywriter: Eric Steele (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Head Of Content Production: Gary Krieg (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Agency Event Producer: Gisellah Harvey (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Executive Creative Director: Ian Reichenthal (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Account Director: Julian Cheevers (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Account Supervisor: Matt Ahumada (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Executive Creative Director: Scott Vitrone (Wieden+Kennedy New York)
Account Executive: Yosef Johnson (Wieden+Kennedy New York)

Results

The Jordan Brand wanted to celebrate Carmelo Anthony’s first shoe release in his new home of NYC in an epic way that felt worthy of the larger-than-life city always competing with itself for attention. The audience were young basketball players around the country, and New Yorkers in general. What could we do to impress both groups? And how could we showcase the power and explosiveness of Melo’s game in a way that felt authentic to both the city and to Melo?
An audience of over 2,500 was drawn to a live event on the Hudson River’s Pier 54, and then surprised with a 50-ft tall water projection of Melo, displaying the power of his game .
We created a unique ‘only in New York’ experience featuring a concert by Queens-born rapper Nas on the Manhattan waterfront, which was interrupted by a helicopter flyby and Melo stunt-double dropping into the water to kick off the 3D Melo projections. The 50ft. holographic Melo interacted with the water and physical space around him, huge water splashes accompanied by sound FX allowed the audience to viscerally see and feel Melo’s explosive jab steps, dribbles and powerful dunks on the river’s surface.
Cameras captured everything, and within 24 hours, a 2-minute behind-the-scenes video was posted on YouTube. Local TV spots and digital media driving people to an interactive pop-up-browser-window version of the projections brought the spectacle to millions post-event.


Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

OOH wild postings, social media updates, DJ live-reads, and ticket giveaways on NYC’s iconic hip-hop station Hot97FM drove people to Pier 54 for the night-time event. Melo made a pre-event radio appearance and radio personality Angie Martinez emceed the festivities. Foursquare check-ins and ‘pop-a-shot’ high scores earned prizes for the public. Then when the concert was in full swing, the show was interrupted by the stunt man and helicopter flyby, and the water projections commenced.


Describe the results in as much detail as possible.

Thanks to local buzz created by wild postings, radio live reads and social media, over 2,500 people attended the sell-out Melo Powers Through The Hudson event.
Jordan’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare created word-of-mouth sharing.
The Internet exploded immediately following the event, with thousands of conversations happening around Melo and the ‘coolness’ of the live-show element. ESPN’s SportsCenter, Nas and Melo retweeted the performance to over 5m followers, and many others re-published our content, including ESPN NY, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports, Sporting News, and the Village Voice among others.
With the immediate impact, alongside the near-100% positive reactions to the campaign on social media, Jordan successfully created a hugely explosive splash for Melo’s arrival in NY.