VanCity Original

Campaign: Vanback
Role: Executive Creative Director

The VANCITY ORIGINAL® brand has been part of Vancouver streetwear and basketball culture since 1998. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, we wanted to do something big. Like helping get an NBA team back in the city. On NBA draft day, we set out to recruit a team of billionaires by asking them to pledge $200 million each towards buying a future NBA team. In exchange, each recruit would get 1 of 15 ultra-exclusive, custom team VANBACK jerseys. Our goal was to get the attention of the league. The "making-of" video and launch event at the VANCITY ORIGINAL° store got the word out. The full story was featured on VANBACK.CA where fans could make their own virtual jersey to join the movement. Everyone could follow along @teamvanback on Instagram where we made shout-outs to local billionaires and celebrities to join the team and support the cause. Meanwhile, we got as much attention as we could in local and international press. Within six weeks of launch, there were over 20,000 site visits, over 140,000 video views and over 2,000,000 media impressions, getting lots of goodwill for the VANCITY ORIGINAL® brand and getting Vancouver back on the radar as a city for a future NBA team.