NFL Schedule Release is the content team's version of the Super Bowl. Each team vies for the headlines, the share of the internet, the post-mortem rankings.
Each year, the Falcons and NFL brings a new challenge on how to integrate the upcoming slate of games in a way that will engage fans, create conversation and "win the internet". The task is a significant one. It takes many months of planning, many hands on deck, all working in the background to make any level of project come to life.
As the season begins to wind down, clubs will get into "offseason mode". While that can seem as though that means "time off mode", for NFL clubs it means how to prepare for the March-May timeframe of Free Agency, Draft & Schedule Release - in what feels as though is a mad dash of tentpole moments for the organization and the city.
As the Falcons organization came together to discuss ideas, we had the inclination of tapping into the nostalgia in some way. That discussion led us to the ever-adored game NFL Street. But how were we going to make this come to life? How could we create a fully-fledged video game in just a few short months? Enter Project XIV, led by two gentlemen overseas in the UK: Antek Karbowiak & Ellis Blake.
This group had a proven track record of working with sports conglomerates and teams alike and jumped in head first with the Falcons Schedule Release Task Force. The Falcons Social Media Team led the way with scripting out just how to fit in 18 games, 15 teams, and keep folks engaged throughout however long the duration of the video may be. The task force met weekly for three plus months to track the project and made adjustments on the fly. As the club received the full 2024 schedule, 24 hours before it was made public, the team stepped into action and shared what became one of the best-regarded social media/schedule release videos in recent memory.
The goals were to:
-Create discussion around the Falcons matchups, opponents
-Resonate with fans of the team, but also the internet
-Produce content that drives earned media
-Keep shareability and re-watchability in mind
Tech included: Unreal Engine 5, Cinema 4D, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Zbrush, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, Rizom, Adobe Creative Suite and many rounds of motion capture content
The Falcons and Project XIV met weekly to go over status updates, flesh out the script of the video, and further immerse the game into the video.
The NFL does not provide teams the full, in order schedule until moments before the public is made aware. Video edits were made in the final hour and then shared out amongst Falcons social channels – earning a collab post from the NFL!
In total, the ATL Streets video garnered over 6 million video views and was lauded by national pundits from ESPN, to Awful Announcing, to Bleacher Report. A "must-watch” from Sporting News!
The organization notably had top-10 rankings from USA Today, The Athletic, and Sports Illustrated,
