As Jordan Brand's global social AOR, Laundry Service was tasked with launching a multi-channel campaign to create and sustain buzz around the summer release of Jordan's new performance sneaker, the XX9.
With live reporting and real-time drone footage of major national basketball events on Twitter, authentic photography, and video telling the story of high school basketball players' summer, Laundry Service helped make the XX9 launch one of the most successful in the brand's storied history.
As Sports Marketing expert Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) tweeted: "No sneaker brand hit the pulse of what it means to be a young high school hooper better than @Jumpman23 this summer."
To build buzz around the XX9 launch across social channels, Jordan told the story of the sneaker through the authentic narrative of high school basketball players' summer journeys. The ongoing content series lived across multiple channels and documented the travels, training, challenges, and fun at the top tournaments around the world, while showcasing product benefits and connecting emotionally with the core Jordan consumer.
To start, Laundry Service followed the brand to major basketball events and activations in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and LA, reporting on the experience on Twitter and capturing amazing content, ranging from real-time drone footage of dunk contests to original video and photography for all social channels.
On Instagram, Laundry Service used original, authentic photography unique to the platform to tell the story of a high school basketball player going to the events to work on his game. Each story featured a beginning, middle and end, following the player along his journey, workouts, and games. By capturing the XX9 on the feet of players in action, working out, shooting and flying, Laundry Service put the focus on product benefits.
Laundry Service put a spotlight on the prototypical Jordan consumer. He was the story's main character, and Laundry Service further evangelized this by producing a scripted video about the player working hard and improving his game over the summer. The goal was to connect emotionally with the social community and co-sign its hard work over the summer, while seamlessly integrating the XX9 as the vehicle of progression and flight. Jordan and Laundry Service took over Brooklyn Bridge Park, surrounded the hero with the top ballers in NYC, and used drone footage to make the content as dynamic as possible. As Laundry Service saw from community feedback, what resonated most with the audience was how much their personal summer experiences aligned with the story.
The video saw a huge amount of engagements in the first week, and remains the third most engaged-with post on Jordan's Facebook page behind the #RE2PECT video and Michael Jordan's Ice Bucket Challenge. Community sentiment around the video was extremely positive. People were motivated to bring their new skills back to school, with many people tagging friends and talking about the upcoming season or reminiscing about high school try-outs. And of course, sharing a huge amount of excitement around the shoe itself.
Thanks to this multi-channel campaign around the story of a Jordan-obsessed high school baller, the XX9 launch was one of the most successful in Jordan's history, and drove more social engagements than any prior product launch.
