Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors take on the New Orleans Pelicans in game three of the conference semifinals on Friday—and Under Armour will be sharing an unexpected surprise with Curry fans and basketball fans alike.
When Curry hits his first three-pointer of any game during the NBA playoffs this season, Under Armour will launch a rousing game of Steph IQ. With help from Red Interactive, Under Armour developed the elimination style trivia app. Think HQ Trivia, but with more questions focused around “the Bay Area, Stephen’s rookie season, epic playoff performances, sneakers” and more, according to Under Armour head of global consumer engagement and digital marketing, Jim Mollica.
Of course, like some of the other apps on the market, Under Armour’s trivia game will also dole out prizes to those who can answer all eight multiple choice questions correctly in the allotted ten seconds per question. Winners will have a chance to split the prize pool (which has yet to be announced), and a few lucky winners will be entered into a special raffle. Prizes in the raffle include the Curry 5 signature shoe, playoff tickets, Under Armour gear and more.
Unlike some other popular appointment-based apps (again, hey HQ), Steph IQ doesn’t have a set window of time when fans can tune in every day, which was an interesting challenge for the Red Interactive team. To spread the word about the game, Under Armour came up with a strategic plan to promote the app through Curry’s social channels as well as through the NBA, the Warriors and Foot Locker.
“What we are trying to pull off here is very technologically challenging, given that Steph and what he does is often so unexpected,” said Roni Sebastian, ecd, Red Interactive. “We wanted the experience to, in the same way, feel unexpected to the user.”
To better connect with the desired audience—males between the ages of 13 and 18—Under Armour selected influencer Bdot to host each game.
Under Armour and Red Interactive designed Steph IQ to be shareable among that young generation of consumers. “As with any digital experience, if it’s rewarding enough, people tend to share it and invite their friends, especially when there are built-in incentives like free passes and extra lives,” Sebastian explained.
Those incentives include free passes that allows them to skip one question per game; they can earn more free passes via “sharing the experience,” Sebastian added.
