Utilizing a professional basketball player is a common way to sell a sneaker. But getting the player to discuss his playing strategy in detail is almost as unusual as Wilt Chamberlin’s 100 point game.
In a recent campaign for the Nike Zoom Kobe III aimed at the Asia Pacific market, AKQA/San Francisco created a video ad that offers numerous opportunities to click for additional content, which is conversation from Laker great Kobe Bryant about his playing strategy. One Move Ahead Kobe III is the one minute twenty-three second video that plays at a nikebasketball.com site.
“Kobe talks about his visualization plays and how he anticipates his opponents to stay one move ahead,” said Neil Robinson, AKQA’a creative director.
Kobe’s comments are integrated into the video that shows Kobe on a playground court, moving to the hoop amidst a group of opposing players. He’s shown in a close up at the beginning of the film, then in mid shots as he weaves his way around the opponents to the basket and banks in a lay up.
AKQA constructed the website to play three versions of the video at three different speeds, real time and two slower speeds, including ‘Explore,’ the slowest version, which allows users to see the motion graphics that can be clicked to get the extra content. “With the real time version, users see the game like a spectator sees it, but the slowed down versions are like Kobe, because he sees things other players don’t see,” Robinson said.
The motion graphics, black and yellow boxes that include phrases such as ‘My Split & Drive’ and ‘Baseline Fade,’ are situated at different intervals during the video. “The motion design team was on hand when we filmed it and the placement of graphics was determined according to the way the director framed things,” Robinson said. The video was created in Flash, “which lets you pause and bring in extra content on top of it,” he said. It was finished in After Effects.
Jesse Dylan, who directed the video for Form/Los Angeles, said that AKQA figured out a time line for the video that included the motion graphics sequences. “We shot along the time line and they condensed it to use the pieces where they wanted,” he said. Dylan shot the main video, which features game action, and separate interviews with Kobe for the motion graphics sequences. He shot the video in film with a Photosonics camera and the interviews with a Red-One digital camera.
The film was shot on Oct. 28 at the Nike basketball court in Hollywood.
The website went live on January 15 and is the only current advertising for the Nike shoe in the Asia Pacific market. “There’s no TV airing now, but we’re in the process of creating TV that will run in Asia,” Robinson said. In store signage with the One Move Ahead tagline is also being used.
The use of the motion graphics elements to show extra content is emblematic of AKQA’s recent efforts to extend interactive broadband video content. Viewers of Fly Through, a film for the Microsoft XBox Halo 3 game, can use arrow keys to drag scenes of the film forward or back to examine figurines in a diorama of a fight sequence. Viewers of My Game, a series of films for Nike, can click to get additional content on NBA star Lebron James, such as shots of Akron, Ohio, his hometown.
“How the web can display this stuff is a challenge for us,” Robinson said. “Our skill set is to think it through from an interactive point of view, so that’s why we used the graphics.”
AKQA has worked for Nike for the past five years, first out of the London office and now San Francisco, which handles work for Asia Pacific clients. Robinson said the use of video advertising with the motion graphics content is “part of a trend where digital is becoming more responsible for video campaigns. In the past, it would have been part of a TV spot from another agency that we would repurpose, but now we’re taking more responsibility and creating high end video content for the web. When we get another spot to work with our creatvity is limited. Now, it’s true to the way we want it to work.”
Michelle Satter To Be Honored At Sundance Film Festival Gala
The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announced details for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s gala fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute, which will take place on Friday, January 24, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah. The event will be an evening in celebration of Michelle Satter, founding sr. director of artist programs at Sundance Institute, for her longstanding commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where visionary artists convene to develop groundbreaking projects through an in-depth creative process, for the past four decades. The annual Vanguard Awards will be presented during the evening to Sean Wang, writer and director of Dìdi, and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of Sugarcane, who premiered their films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists from all over the world. The 2025 event is made possible with the generous support of Google TV. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling.
“For over four decades Michelle has been devoted to truly championing independent storytellers,” said Amanda Kelso, acting CEO of Sundance Institute. “She has encouraged artists to own their voice, learn their craft, become fierce leaders, and develop their resilience in our changing ecosystem. Her life-long commitment to supporting artists, especially in underrepresented... Read More