The campaign, from agency Translation, features legends and newcomers as the league aims to broaden its fan base
Stephen Curry has the magic touch for three pointers, as any Golden State Warriors fan knows, but he can also tiptoe through a room full of lasers, a la Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. And, separate but related, he has serious amphibian energy.
The hidden skills of that particular basketball legend aren't the only off-court talents on display in "The Heist II," a short film that announces the upcoming 2024 Emirates NBA Cup.
"The Heist II," a stylized homage to the crime caper genre, is a collaboration between the NBA and longtime agency partner Translation. As the name implies, the video is a sequel to last year's "The Heist," which snagged nearly 500 million views globally.
With that track record -- and aiming to boost year 2 of the contest formerly called the In-Season Tournament -- creatives picked up the Ocean's Eleven vibe of the original spot and added new flourishes.
"We wanted to keep the narrative and the storytelling vehicle consistent," Tammy Henault, the NBA's CMO, told ADWEEK. "We're continuing to build awareness and to educate people about this tournament, and we're trying to speak to a broad base -- casual fans, women, multicultural audiences, Gen Z."
Actor-producer Rosario Dawson joins the cast in her first ad for the NBA, with former Sopranos wise guy Michael Imperioli and Los Angeles Lakers veteran Anthony Davis reprising their roles from "The Heist."
Shot at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, newcomers for the sequel include Jrue Holiday of the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets, and Tyrese Holiday from the Indiana Pacers.
Viewers who followed the inaugural In-Season Tournament will likely note at least one Easter egg in the new hero spot: Davis and Holiday went toe to toe with their respective teams for the trophy in 2023, with the Lakers coming out on top.
"The Heist II" scenario has Davis celebrating the win with a few bottles of bubbly in his fancy hotel suite, while guarding the glitzy cup. His fellow competitors, meanwhile, are cooking up various schemes to steal it from him like scaling the building (Holiday), climbing an elevator shaft (Gilgeous-Alexander), and scuba diving through the Bellagio fountain (Curry).
But as Imperioli and Dawson note, the trophy can't be swiped. It has to be earned on the court.
The new spot, directed by Paul Hunter, includes icons Curry and Davis while being "highly focused on elevating" the younger players who are stepping into the spotlight, Henault said. The mix is part of an ongoing push from the league, evident in the recent season launch campaign called "The Tip-Off."
While the name has changed -- via a multi-year deal with sponsor Emirates airline -- the 2024 tourney itself remains largely unchanged from its 2023 outing. Scheduling has been slightly tweaked for a longer playoff window in Vegas, which builds in more time for fan attendance and content creator participation, Henault said.
Group play begins on Nov. 12 with a doubleheader on TNT featuring the New York Knicks versus the Philadelphia 76ers, followed by the Golden State Warriors hosting the Dallas Mavericks.
In adding the tournament in 2023, the league intended to amp its ratings (both for the event and for regular season games), while expanding its fandom. Results indicate it was a solid move. The championship game between the Pacers and Lakers averaged 4.58 million viewers on ABC and ESPN2, up 46% from a prior year's NBA game in a comparable TV window, per Nielsen.
Viewership peaked at 5.68 million for the matchup, becoming the most-watched primetime program among all key demographics on Dec. 9, Nielsen data shows. It was the most-watched non-Christmas NBA game during the regular season on any network since February 2018, Nielsen found.
"The Heist II" will air on linear television, digital, and social channels, with out-of-home, audio ads, and IRL activations also planned. Behind-the-scenes bits and related pieces of content, drawing in NBA A-listers like Grant Hill and others, will roll out in the coming weeks.
"We're leaning into the cultural node strategy, looking for audiences that over index and have a higher likelihood of tuning in -- sneaker heads, gamers, pop culture fans," Henault said. "We're approaching this campaign with a lot of assets that will target different audiences."