BUILT FROM CONCRETE | Powerade wanted to champion Young Lions to know that they have more power than they think. That it can come from anywhere and inspire everyone.
Because streetball has always been a huge part of youth basketball culture we decided to utilize this platform, the voices of NBA athletes, and a new community initiative to help us bring street cred to POWERADE’S ‘Built From Concrete’ program.
Today, there are more streetball and pickup games with NBA players than ever before so it was the perfect time to recognize streetballers as legitimate and powerful athletes to inspire the Young Lions that they are powerful too.
Even pro basketball players didn’t start out as pros – they started on the blacktop copying their favorite streetball player’s moves.
To connect with teens and show them that uncontainable power can come from anywhere, we worked with Uninterrupted to create a 3-part video series with graphic animations featuring pro basketball players Kemba Walker, Jamal Crawford and Asia Durr. Each athlete talked about their “home court” and how streetball legends (and their moves) inspired them to become the players they are today.
To further galvanize Young Lions to participate in the ‘Built From Concrete’ program, we were tasked with developing a digital and out-of-home expansion of the video content series into a community initiative around ‘Murals & Posters’ where top local artists would be commissioned to create interactive street art murals and posters of the best streetball legends’ performing their most famous signature moves.
The street art murals and posters would happen in conjunction with the top notable streetball tournaments and leagues that take place throughout the summer.
Select local ballers were awarded with an opportunity to have their video converted into a unique digital experience that would be exclusively unlocked for local fans who visited the court and viewed the official posters via our ‘Built From Concrete’ App.
When viewing the local poster(s) via the app, users saw an original animated version of the poster overlaying itself via AR, and swiped to view other local ballers who shared their videos across social media and garnered the respect of their local and larger online community.
We provided Young Lions with the opportunity to participate in an online challenge and share their most powerful signature jumpshot, crossover, jelly roll layup, or dunk that would be voted on by their peers as the next signature move worthy of its own street art.
In addition, we created animated POWERADE inspired graphic overlays such as dunk borders/filters that fans could use to enhance their signature move video content submissions.
And finally, through our collaboration proposal with Uninterrupted, we were able to develop a community initiative program called ‘Project Lighthouse’ that lights the path for brands like POWERADE to join forces with our creative talent network to help build communities.
Our first community initiative launched with POWERADE implementing a basketball court makeover in the Bronx and Seattle.
Rob Hersey, VP Creative Director
Chris Surrey, Creative Director
Lindsey Brand, Associate Creative Director
Tamika Blockett, VP, Content Director
Alicia D’Souza, Content Sr. Associate
Kneeon Studios Team:
//kneeon, Director & Animation Producer
Matt Smithson, Design & Illustration
Michael Belmonte, Executive Producer
Arthur Guttilla & Pavelas Laptevas – 2D Animators
Mike Healey, Compositing
Deux Wave – Texturing and 2D animation
Raymo Ventura & Rozz Zimmerman – Animators
Ariana Williams, Animation Intern
Arjun Sheth – Sound Design
Nascent Beats – Music
Pixod Studio Team:
Mali X – Digital Design + Development
Phillip Moithuk Shung – Art Direction + Design
Justin Henry – Motion Design
