Fans Finally Have GIFs Worthy of Joel Embiid

The NBA is arguably the most social media friendly sports league, and that focus is beginning to seep into ads featuring NBA stars. While other leagues have tried to clamp down on copyrighted materials across social media, the NBA has generally opened content to the masses, with the result being vibrant digital communities like #NBATwitter and the NBA subreddit. Young stars have been able to leverage social media to build personal brands beyond on-court performance. Joel Embiid, the star and big man for the Philadelphia 76ers, didn’t even play his first two years in the NBA due to a string of injuries. Despite not being on the court, he was a fan favorite thanks to an active Twitter presence. Once he finally broke out in 2017, Embiid immediately became one of the league's young icons, thanks in large part to his rabid digital audience. Now agency TBWA\Chiat\Day is leveraging Embiid’s love of social media for a new Mountain Dew campaign that aims to up fans' GIF game when it comes to celebrating his plays. [kickout id="1"] “The new Dew commercial featuring Joel Embiid is exciting new territory for us because it does more than send an advertising message. It’s a call to action to do something,” said Erin Chin, senior director of marketing for Mountain Dew. “Dew fans as well as NBA fans are always fully plugged into hoops culture, and we know they are almost always on social media during the games. So we teamed up with Giphy to make the GIFs from the TV commercial accessible on Instagram.” While real GIFs obviously don't have sound like what's featured in the ad, the clips can still be found in their silent glory in one of Mountain Dew's collections on Giphy. [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] [kickout id="4"] Strategically, the ad hits Mountain Dew’s target audience of digital-native young adults with a two-pronged content approach: a spot that plays up Embiid's charms and lightly branded GIFs that will fuel his fans' love for social media. The top two YouTube comments showcase the best and worst extremes of reactions from this target audience. One commenter said it made them want to buy Mountain Dew. The other promised to blame Mountain Dew if Embiid experienced diarrhea again in the playoffs (a reference to his 2019 battle with stomach flu). TBWA\Chiat\Day's campaign highlights a clear trend of brands partnering with Giphy to amplify their ads and partnerships. Today, for example, Jif peanut butter (by way of Publicis agency PSOne) launched a limited-edition jar labeled Gif in partnership with Giphy, with the product selling out in hours. CREDITS: Client: Pepsico / Mountain Dew - Nicole Portwood – Vice President Marketing: Mtn Dew / Energy / Flavors Erin Chin – Senior Director Marketing Alexandre Chiavegatti - Director Marketing Ashley Booker – Marketing Manager Charece Williams Gee - Sports Marketing Strategy, Basketball Partnerships Direct Focus - Brett Zuckerman - Producer Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day Chris Beresford-Hill - CCO Julia Neumann - ECD Amy Ferguson - ECD Mike Blanch - Creative Director Tom Hall - ACD, copy Avi Steinbach - ACD, copy Alexander Holm - ACD, art Nancy Reyes – President Bruna Bechelli - Business Lead Matthew Duerr - Business Director Allie Lightcap - Business Manager Jennifer Bilyk - Director of Business Affairs Anne Camile Charpié - Integrated Business Affairs Manager John Doris - Head of Production Tina Lam - Executive Producer James Sowden – Chief Strategy Officer John Gibson – Executive Strategy Director Bodi Karsano - Digital Strategist Michael Obermeyer – Senior Strategist Production: Park Pictures Director - Terri Timely DP: Donavan Sell EP: Justin Pollock EP: Jackie Kelman Bisbee HOP: Anne Bobroff Production Designer: Ginger Tougas Line Producer: David Lambert Editorial: PS260 Editor: Maury Loeb Assistant Editor: Ashley Ingbretson Managing Partner: Zarina Mak Senior Producer: Evann Payne Creative Director: Patrick Lavin VFX: Artjail VFX on-set supervisors: Steve Mottershead, Emily Bloom Creative Director: Steve Mottershead VFX Supervisor/2D Lead: Emily Bloom Head of 2d: Lee Towndrow 2D Compositor: Alex Harding Designer-Animators: Juan Monasterio, Kristin Koch Executive Producer: John Skeffington Producer: Sue Yee Hubbard Audio: Plush Mixer: Rob Fielack Assistant Mixer: John Nathans Managing Director: Stephen Schmidt Music House: Search Party Music Composers: Aaron Paul Low and Mike Gibney EP: Winslow Bright

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Thanks to Mountain Dew, Fans Finally Have GIFs Worthy of Joel Embiid

The brand and TBWA\Chiat\Day want you to step up your tweets when he's on his game

Mitch Reames

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Mitch Reames