The words "Akron. Est. 1984" are inked across LeBron James body.
When LeBron James decided to return to Cleveland, he wasn't just taking the next step in his career. He was returning home.
He's re-established. In 2014.
Our powerful campaign for LeBron James PowerBeats Wireless headphones shows how LeBron went from a poor black kid with a lot of hopes to the best basketball player in the world, bringing those hopes back to his hometown. And since it's written on his body, what better way to show it than through the intense work he puts his body through.
The film had over 9 million views in the first week and topped the AdAge viral video chart. Additionally, it won two golds, a silver in sports and a bronze at the Clios Awards, LIA shortlists for music, cinematography, film and editing, a silver Andy award, and a 2015 shortlist for the Cannes Lions.
On the end of the film, we created an interactive map within YouTube that allows users to click on different films that dive deeper into each of LeBron's flashback vignettes they saw in the long form film, narrated by both LeBron and his mother, Gloria James.
PUT AKRON ON THE MAP
LeBron made a promise to one day put Akron on the map. Beats is going to help him do that.
We created this website that launched a day before LeBron's first home game. This site tracks conversations around America's top-trending cities with the goal of getting enough people to talk about #AKRON and thus put it on the map.
In addition to the film, we released a print ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the day the film launched.
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Associate Creative Director: Lauren Smith
Art Director: Rance Randle
Creative Directors: Will Esparza and Zach Hilder
Director: Nabil
Photographer: Gary Land