Now We Collide gives ESPN cool stuff to share

Hardcore sports fans will follow ESPN anywhere. But ESPN wanted to make fans from a wider audience, and that meant it had to engage with the most elusive group there is, men 18-30.

They weren’t watching ESPN already, but they were finding and sharing video content on a variety of devices. That content wasn’t all about sport.

ESPN’s content production agency, Now We Collide, made a number of decisions. The content had to be ‘cool’. It had to be different. It had to have a natural association with sport. The street art movement offered all three.

“We found that the street art movement and sport in essence were very similar in that these incredible moments in sport & street art only live for a very short time and that the audience was tribally similar and were moved by the same emotional motivations,” the agency noted.

So Now We Collide found the best Australian street artist, Sofles – to underscore ESPN’s position that it’s all about the best in sport. It also brought in director, Selina Miles, and over a week at Carriageworks, Sydney, the agency created and filmed 12 huge original artworks depicting the biggest and pivotal moments from the NFL, NBA and X Games.

These have become the heart and soul of the eye-catching content and campaign, that consists of 1x 90 second video montage, 1x 60 second video montage, a 30 second video specific to each of NBA, NFL and X Games, an intriguing 15 second Instagram teaser, 1 x 60 second behind-the-scenes film, a five minute Making Of documentary and a bunch of stills for social media…

…music, colour, fast cuts, drones, fast-mo & slo-mo, and intriguing juxtapositions.

The campaign will run across TV, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Now We Collide was responsible for everything from creative concept to post production.

The agency also worked with Orchard to create the interactive Ask Pawl website for Blackmores PAW. Now We Collide filmed and animated over 70 responses to provide the database of answer so that dog owners can ask pet well-being questions to Pawl B. More and have the doggie vet come up with the answer.

And its social video, created with with street artist, OxKing, for the release of Minions worldwide achieved almost 1.3 million views, 35000 likes, 18000 shares and 4000 comments before the film release.