Translation and the NBA Deliver ‘The Gift of Basketball’ for Christmas

By Erik Oster 

Translation hypes the NBA’s Christmas Day games with its celebration of “The Gift of Basketball.”

The spot opens with the line, “There’s a reason the holidays bring us together,” followed by positioning Christmas Day basketball as the reason why “the best gifts are delivered in threes,” and “a last second surprise is something we never forget,” to name two of several such claims. The voiceover is accompanied by the familiar strains of “Jingle Bells,” a series of highlights and the message “I’m Why” over stars such as LeBron James.
“The Gift of Basketball” debuted last week during broadcasts of NBA primetime games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers and the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors. It is the latest in the agency’s “This Is Why We Play” platform, which it launched for the league way back in October of 2015.

This year, Translation added AOR duties for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets as well, and also launched a campaign for the NFL promoting youth football. In October the agency hired John Fulbrook away from The Martin Agency as group creative director, design.

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Credits:
Agency: Translation LLC
Chief Executive Officer: Steve Stoute
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Chief Strategy Officer: John Greene
Group Creative Director: Andy Ferguson
Creative, Senior Art Director: Fernando Mattei
Director of Content Production: Miriam Franklin
Director of Business Affairs: Thalia Tsouros
Senior Content Producer: Leah Donnenberg
Group Account Director: Stanley Lumax
Account Director: Agustina Marcos
Account Executive: Jordan Ofsevit
Project Manager: Matt DeSimone
Editorial: Lost Planet Editorial
Editor: Charlie Johnston
Executive Producer: Krystn Wagenberg
Producer: Casey Cayko
Assistant Editors: Kenji Yamauchi, Juliana Rodzinski
Post Production Company: Black Hole
Creative Director: Reginald Butler
Producer: Felix Cabrera
VFX Artists: Joanne Ungar, Tim Farrell
GFX Artists: Reginald Butler, Andre Sam, Brandon Sugiyama, Will Robertson, Aldo
Gonzalez, Daniel Jack Clark
Audio Mix: Heard City
Audio Mixer: Dan Flosdorf
Executive Producer: Sasha Awn
Producer: Andi Lewis
Color Grade: RCO
Colorist: Seth Ricart
Executive Producer: Sheina Dao

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