Hoop Dreams
Client
Turner Sports
To welcome the NCAA March Madness tournament back for the 2021 season, our clients at Turner Sports came to us looking for an energetic way to showcase the March Madness app in a fully graphic expression. In the spot we designed, we departed from the celeb highlights in favor of celebrating fan enthusiasm and connection using entirely 3D animations.
BGSTR was incredibly collaborative throughout the whole process and really brought our vision to life. This was a bit of a departure from our typical workflow and their creative expertise, particularly with CG, was invaluable. It felt like a true partnership that delivered a finished product we felt was bold, vibrant, and engaging.
An additional element for consideration was that of course, many of those fans would be watching this year’s tournament from their homes. For us, that meant showing how the community the tournament is known for could be accessed via the March Madness app.
This is the experience that guided how the whole creative concept was built out and how the idea of being Made for Madness originated. After presenting several options, the setup featuring different compositions of animated phones transitioning in and out and creating that connection through CG hands and living rooms resonated with the client and we were off to the races.
Our team, which consisted primarily of two designers and four animators, took a highly methodical approach to the spot as a whole, each boarding out the spot shot-by-shot to ensure the energy and story were well represented in every moment. We brought in our clients at Turner for joint spotting sessions during which we analyzed each scene.
Final Push
The editorial moments we selected were the result of our team effort to ensure the best shots and memorable moments of tournaments past made the spot. This highly collaborative environment enabled us to efficiently move through the promo and was a major factor in the project's success.
In the end, we delivered a :30 second fully graphic spot in addition to a number of cutdowns and spots for social use and loved seeing them all in full rotation throughout the entire tournament.
Props where props are due
