Channeling Napoleon Dynamite a Success for Blazers All-Star Campaign

The Portland Trail Blazers’ content team is hoping to extend its connection to the team’s fans with this week’s NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte.

This weekend will provide an opportunity to dive deeper into some Blazers’ lives, including guard Damian Lillard, said Aaron Grossman, the director of content for Portland.

The All-Star campaign started with a video to get Lillard and teammate CJ McCollum voted into the All-Star game. Ultimately, Lillard was voted onto the roster and team captain Lebron James selected him in the All-Star draft.

Grossman said every team seeks a way to creatively promote their players, but it sometimes seems like each team uses the same concepts over and over.

This year, the Blazers sought out a workaround to come up with a different way to promote McCollum and Lillard for the All-Star Game. The pair are good friends in real life and staples on the court in Portland.

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“They both took to the idea and were very receptive to it from the beginning,” Grossman said. “It didn’t require a lot of back and forth, we presented the concept and during the shoot, they were willing to do things above and beyond what we expected.

“The commitment to their roles and personality really shine through and that’s why it was as successful as it was.”

The video showcased the pair’s friendship and competitiveness as they campaigned for each other to make the All-Star roster, culminating with McCollum dancing like Napoleon Dynamite.

Grossman was happy with the performance and said it was difficult to compare to previous All-Star campaigns as the voting procedures have changed. The video had more than 700,000 views across the Blazers social channels and more than 80,000 engagements.

“Comparing isn’t apples to apples,” he said. “But the views and interpretation of it, the actual commentary and appreciation, was certainly better than in years past.”

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The success was in large part because the players were cooperative and wanted to see each other be successful, Grossman said. The content team often tries to showcase the players’ individual personalities and the All-Star campaign video was an extension of the normal strategy. Grossman still credits the players with their commitment to cooperate beyond the normal commitments.

“It was something they could have chosen not to participate in,” Grossman said. “We try to entertain in a unique voice that represents our city and team. The All-Star is a great opportunity to promote for a specific reason and cause.”

The Blazers social team met this week to prepare for the on-the-ground strategy in Charlotte. With two players in North Carolina for the weekend, the team is preparing for a more in-depth look at players lives beyond game day.

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The content team will have three people at the All-Star Game, a social representative, sideline reporter, and videographer. Lillard will be in the main All-Star Game, while Lillard will be joined by teammate Seth Curry in the 3-Point Contest.

Grossman said two players in a single place for multiple days gives the content team the chance to share stories they haven’t been able to in the past. He’s excited to continue the All-Star campaign into this weekend.

A focus of the content will be on Lillard and his interactions with the NBA’s other stars in Charlotte.

“He’s our guy and it demonstrates his place with NBA’s greatest players and any of his interactions will be important to capture,” Grossman said. “He’s earned the respect of the best players and coaches and media and anyway we can capture where he stands with his peers is really important to showcase the player he’s become.”