They Shoot, You Score

SoFi is the Official Bank of the NBA, and honestly, it’s a really cool partnership. During our first year together, the brand wanted to make a big splash during the new, shiny SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament. My partner and I pitched a few ideas, but nothing made it past the stakeholder review. My partner was out on PTO during the meeting, so I took a shot from the logo.

I asked the broader team what their goal was for this campaign, and in that meeting I led a brainstorm that birthed a promo that generated record-breaking boosts in unaided brand awareness among NBA fans and the general public, at rates of 15% and 10%, respectively. By the end of the tournament, 8 in 10 NBA fans knew SoFi.

I called it, They Shoot, You Score.

They Shoot, You Score was a trigger-promo 360-campaign. For every bank shot scored in gameplay, SoFi members would receive $1 in rewards points. The live-broadcast TV spots from this campaign performed 74% better than NBA regular-season airings. With more than 565M impressions across social, They Shoot, You Score was the buzzer beater SoFi needed to really win over NBA fans early in their partnership’s history.

Creative Directors: Marty Bonacorso, Chris Ryan Art Director: Brad Khauv Copywriter: Kai Fields