Foot Locker’s House of Hoops creates interactive player logo tool for next gen basketball fans via dentsu’s BWM Isobar and Merkle
Ever since Jordan’s ‘Jumpman’ turned ballers into brands, every basketball fan has wanted their own player logo. But as the sport grew exponentially worldwide, it was still only the game’s most elite – like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant – that got the chance to have their own signature logo. Until now.
‘House of Hoops Mark of Greatness’ is a mobile-first, interactive design tool, developed by dentsu’s BWM Isobar and Merkle, that lets basketball fans create their own, personalised ‘player logo’ in a few simple steps – with the chance to score their own player edition shoe.
Upon launch, the promo film hit almost one million views on YouTube – creating interest not only in Australia and New Zealand, but all around the world. Over 32,000 fans experimented with designs, with the very best winners’ designs featured on out-of-home media across the country.
Says Brendan Graham, senior director, marketing, Asia-Pacific, Foot Locker: “The House of Hoops retail concept exists for those who live for hoops, it is one of Foot Locker’s most premium expressions of Nike and Jordan brand products.
“COVID’s impact accelerated our need to bring the innovative experience House of Hoops is known for at a physical retail level, into digital touchpoints. This idea embraced the culture of the modern game and gave our customers a truly engaging House of Hoops brand experience online and on mobile.”
The overall winner was 24-year-old Rico from Hamilton NZ, who not only won his own player edition shoe and apparel, but was given the full pro athlete treatment. Powerful stills of Rico pulling iconic basketball poses were captured and plastered everywhere on high impact billboards and large format digital OOH – just like the NBA superstars.
Quickly spreading from Australia and New Zealand, this was a campaign that ballers were talking about all around the globe. The excitement of Mark of Greatness featured on some of the world’s most popular basketball news sites, even reaching the ultimate, NBA.com. And 36% uplift in traffic to the Foot Locker House of Hoops site means young fans are not only making their mark, but now heading to House of Hoops for all their basketball needs.
Says Graham: “This is all thanks to highly intuitive digital experience.”
The tool at markofgreatness.com simply requires users to enter their initials to have a monogram automatically created to form a symbol. From there, the tool integrates hundreds of font, colourway, icon and shape iterations to let fans design and generate something that is truly personalised and looks just like the pros.
Client: Foot Locker and Nike
Senior Director, Marketing, Foot Locker APAC: Brendan Graham
Senior Brand Manager, Foot Locker Pacific: Jane Buckle
Partner Marketing Manager, Nike: Navin Arunasalam
Creative Agency:
BWM Isobar
Executive Creative Director: Marcus Tesoriero
Creative Director: Marcel Moniaga
Creative Director: Jack Delmonte
Senior Designer: Augusto Jacquier
Senior Designer: Stefan Derewianka
Senior Designer: Miles Jackson
Senior Designer/Editor: Mike Jones
Group Account Director: Evaan Miocevich
Account Director: Sam Talbot
Senior Producer: Savannah Anseline
Head of Production: Mel Sultana
Social Media Manager: Londi Baloyi
Creative Project Manager: Karina Zheng
Merkle
Creative Director: Bradley Eldridge
Senior Visual Designer: Stephen Brabazon
Senior UX Designer: Dan Treichel
Senior Front-end Developer: Adriaan JVR
Technical Lead: Sam Bruno
Senior Account Manager: Joel Anderson
12 Comments
I bloody love that Jordan logo. Nice idea to give that design opportunity to everyone.
Tried the link on my phone , didn’t bug out. Actually works well. Pretty simple
Thank you – I’ve been wanting one of these for years. Nice work.
Simple and well executed. A great cases study to show what a brand agency and digital experience agency can do when working together properly.
Like being back in 2o12.
My son’s a sneaker head and would have gone crazy for this.
Had a couple mates doing this, didn’t realise it was from Aus.
Did anyone do any research into this? There’s been custom logos for kicks for years. Nike let you make your own logo 10 years ago and then turned it into a whole branch called Nike by You.
This is one of those ad ideas that old CDs reckon is cool and hip, but no sneaker head is going to touch. Would have thought FL would have had some better intel for the agency.
Hope award judges remember that. Like you said, its been done before. A nicely cut case study can’t erase the past or make the judges blind. Tired of ideas being reframed for awards purpose
Sorry guys, you are 14 years behind the eightball here:
https://sneakernews.com/2008/10/29/puma-mongolian-bbq-first-round-2/
Old idea, re-invented, photoshopped OOH, smells like someone wants some awards for nothing original here!
The agency made a tool to craft your own player logo like what Jordan was famous for. Customising your own shoe colours is just a function Nike etc have provided for years. Completely different. These guys nailed their insight which is why so many people entered. Well done to the people who put this together.
Nike by you let’s you customise Nike shoes. Nothing to do with creating your own mark or Player Logo. Don’t think they would have got a million hits on YouTube or talked about by NBA if this work wasn’t a fresh idea.