THE SOUL OF THE CITY

The NBA set out to create a series which pays tribute to the huge fanbase they have across Europe, turning the spotlight from American basketball onto lesser-known European cities who struggled through occupation, bankruptcy and adversity to make their own mark on the basketball world. 

The fans became our protagonists, their stories forming the episodes.That is why Hoop Cities is relevant for Sport Entertainment - it puts the viewer in the middle of the passion of these fans, dedication of these players, strength of these communities and love for this sport that travels globally and translates locally. 

As part of its new DTC strategy and App reskin, the NBA approached several production companies from different countries, finding the best European talent to produce a hyper-localised, 8-part documentary series about 8 basketball cities across the continent. 

The brief was to create cost-effective, high-quality films, with a close attention to authentic narrative and a distinctly creative shooting and editing style. Each feature-length episode is in-language and offers an in-depth and entirely authentic insight into the basketball culture, history, people and passion of that city - telling their stories in a unique way. 

We set out with this objective to ensure that the finished content would appeal to the people from these communities and cities who support these teams with all their heart. This series is for the casual, curious and core fans. For people who have never picked up a ball and those who have visited playgrounds across the globe. 

The cities were chosen from key markets in EME, in the home countries of some of the biggest current NBA players. Some of the teams portrayed in the series, like the New York Knicks, are the most followed NBA franchises on the continent. 

The target audience of core, casual and curious fans, inspired us to include cultural sections about each city to build a picture of the basketball scene and the context in which it developed, so they can learn about the unique cultures of this ubiquitous sport and visit these cities to play, eat, dance and enjoy. 

We worked closely with local business owners, fans, historians and journalists to gain insight and access to some fantastic stories and locations. 

The success of this series is also the result of multiple production agencies across Europe working together to research, write and shoot hundreds of hours of interview and b-roll footage.  

This project is about the soul of each city, the people at its heart - from die-hard fans to up-and-coming talent across the continent. The creative idea is a personal love letter to each city and their relationship with basketball, all while discovering untold stories and hidden gems. 

The audience feels immersed in the culture, pulled from one corner of the city to the next, following these people, feeling their struggles, triumphs and successes. These stories create connection across cities, countries and continents - bringing the personalities of fans, players, teams and communities to life, crossing language and geographical barriers. 

By telling often underrepresented stories of female teams and disabled athletes, giving space to different age groups, and highlighting the origin stories of worldwide basketball stars such as Evan Fournier, Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Furkan Korkmaz, we hope that this series can inspire a new generation of kids to follow their basketball dreams. 

Coordinating shoots across 6 agencies and 13 cities, over 10 months, during the pandemic, whilst trying to keep both financial and environmental impacts low, was an interesting challenge. 

We tackled this project as a remote edit, with members of the post-production team working from across Europe. This innovative way of working kept travel and commuting impact at a minimum, with only two critical review points in London during the 6 month edit. 

Throughout this process we worked closely with the NBA, local leagues, teams, federations and local historical bodies to gather up priceless archive footage and stills and to ensure authenticity throughout the series. We also worked closely with a world-famous design agency, who created the Hoop Cities brand identity. 

We are proud of the fact that gender balance during pre-production, production and post-production was 60% female and 40% male - unusual for such a male-dominated field as sports. 

On release, Hoop Cities was the lead NBA content series globally. It has been picked up by several NBA media partners in the region and also Sky Sports UK. The promotional campaign on social involved over 100 contributors - protagonists, celebrities, teams, leagues, federations, and local influencers. Apart from basketball fans, music lovers (10%), food and cooking (10%), and multimedia entertainment (9%) had the highest click-through rate. There have been 100+ pieces of media coverage, 109 million impressions, 1.7 million engagements, and over 35 million views on the NBA social channels.