In 2008, the Boston Celtics reached the NBA final for the first time in over 20 years. Reebok wanted to create a campaign that would magnify the excitement and magic of this sporting moment, with only 8 days to turn around the campaign. The key objectives were to activate the Reebok brand during the highest profile basketball series, establish authenticity and credibility in the basketball category and drive sales of Reebok's basketball merchandise.
The Reebok-sponsored player Rondo was the number one asset. Reebok wanted to build on the growing popularity of the player while driving traffic to the mobile site. The ky was to encourage people to download a "You Got Rondo'd" ringtone to their mobile phones and sign up for ring backs before each of the games. This meant that when the games happened, the phones were set up to go off whenever Rondo played a good move. As soon as he made a great play, all of the phones rang out with the ringtone "You got Rondo'd". When people picked up the calls, they heard further messages from ex-Celtics legends providing an instant payoff for the consumer in real time as they watched the game unfold. The personalized WAP site also featured NBA player info, links to product cataluge, send to a friend mechanism and bespoke videos based on the same theme.
This was supported by mobile and online ads, flyering in bars in and around the stadiums where the finals were being played, as well as a key in-stadium presence on the big screen. There was also a Reebok homepage takeover, targeted mobile banners, videos seeded on YouTube.
As a result, the mobile site received over half a million unique visits. Mobile ringtones and videos were downloaded by more than 200,000 people. Sales of Reebok's Celtics and basketball merchandise exceeded US and international targets. The phrase "You got Rondo'd" has also now entered into household vernacular.