Some East Coast basketball fans are still reliving the recent NBA Finals. For everyone else, there\u2019s a new season to look forward to\u2014and the schedule for the upcoming season is officially out.<\/p>\n
Schedule release day has become something of a holiday for NBA fans, as well as fans of other leagues, like the NFL and WNBA<\/a>. This season, every NBA team dropped some kind of schedule release content\u2014but not all of them were slam dunks (the Toronto Raptors, for instance, ruffled<\/a> some<\/a> feathers<\/a> with their gossip podcast parody<\/a> video).<\/p>\n The Chicago Bulls\u2019 video game\u2013inspired schedule release video<\/a>, which was packed with local references and NBA Easter eggs, seems to be a rare example of sports social content that\u2019s largely lauded in the comments, with multiple \u201cwell done\u201ds and calls for the content team to get raises.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Less than 24 hours after it dropped, the video had accumulated more than 1.1 million views across platforms, the fourth most among NBA teams, according to data from content intelligence company Mondo Metrics and the Sponcon Sports newsletter<\/a>. (FWIW, the Raptors\u2019 video came in at No. 7, with over 900,000 views.)<\/p>\n We spoke with Luka Dukich, the Bulls\u2019 VP of content marketing, about how his team pulled it off.<\/p>\n \u201cWe make it for the group chat,\u201d he told us. \u201cFor us, the schedule release is just an opportunity to be uninhibited.\u201d<\/p>\n Animation nation<\/p>\n Dukich said his team starts officially brainstorming the coming season\u2019s schedule release around April, around the time that NFL schedule content starts rolling out. The Bulls content staff\u2014led by Digital Content Director Nikko Tan\u2014tend to use that league\u2019s content for inspiration, Dukich said, and they also keep a running doc with ideas dating back three or four years.<\/p>\n The idea to use Grand Theft Auto as inspiration came up a few years back and didn\u2019t get used right away, Dukich said, but with the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI scheduled for later this year, it made sense to circle back. The Bulls have dabbled in animated schedule release videos before, with a Pok\u00e9mon theme for the 2023-24 season that became a viral hit<\/a>, so there wasn\u2019t much concern about not using live players and other talent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives us space to play and do different things that are harder to do if you\u2019re doing an actual, physical shoot,\u201d Dukich said. Video-game culture is widespread and often nostalgic, \u201cand there\u2019s all these little callbacks that people get really excited about,\u201d he told us. \u201cYou don\u2019t even have to be a Bulls fan to watch that and get excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Chi-town<\/p>\n While the video takes place in a GTA-like universe, it\u2019s also heavily Chicago-coded. It started with the cast: Bulls mascot Benny the Bull, who is a huge part of the brand, has more TikTok followers<\/a> than the Bulls\u2019 official account, and \u201cfeels like a natural video-game character, anyway,\u201d Dukich said. In the video, Benny navigates the city on a mission to pick up the schedule from Bulls forward Matas Buzelis.<\/p>\n Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/p>\n Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n \u201cMeet me at the top of the Sears Tower so I can give it to you,\u201d Buzelis says over the phone.<\/p>\n The Sears Tower reference is one of several Chicago Easter eggs: The iconic building is called the Willis Tower now, but many Chicagoans still use the old name. Benny also starts at the United Center, travels to the Loop in downtown Chicago, and passes by the Chicago River.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s those little things where it just feels really natural,\u201d Dukich said. \u201cThere\u2019s a car just littered with parking tickets, as we have all experienced, having driven in Chicago\u2026You see all the locations, but there\u2019s also just a really Chicago feel to it, and I think that\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s real and that resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n All love<\/p>\n The video is also chock-full of NBA references, from player name-drops spanning multiple teams to some truly \u201cdeep-cut NBA culture jokes,\u201d Dukich said, including a reference to Bill Simmons\u2019s legendary colonoscopy<\/a> on the day Jaylen Brown was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Pacers couple<\/a> that went viral for arguing, apparently about the value of a liberal arts education, at a game. In other words, IYKYK.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the stuff that gets you to watch it multiple times to try to see, \u2018What did I miss?\u2019\u201d Dukich said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes the best type of schedule release.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bulls content team is largely focused on brand-oriented goals over hard business metrics like ticket sales, which means stats like watch time are important to them, Dukich said. Getting people to spend time with team content can be difficult, though, given the cluttered nature of the sports content ecosystem and shortening attention spans, and especially during the offseason.<\/p>\n But as of Aug. 20, about a week after the video dropped, the Bulls\u2019 schedule release had over 150,000 engagements and almost 4 million impressions, Dukich told us, plus a slew of positive comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got people talking about and engaging with the Bulls in the middle of August,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s such a win. It brought a little smile and happiness to a bunch of people, and that\u2019s a pretty cool feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n