ESPN Ad Campaign Focuses on Immediacy of Live Sports

ESPN has launched the first ad from a new integrated campaign focusing on the power of live sports. Featuring a series of spots and digital and social elements, the campaign illustrates the urgency of ESPN’s live content and how other media – like social or streaming media – can wait.

The inaugural 30-second commercial, titled “Queue,” showcases a familiar scenario: a woman flipping through her movie queue, contemplating her options based on a recommendations algorithm. But she has an “a-ha” moment when she realizes her team is about to play a potentially historic game on ESPN and unlike a movie, she must watch the game right then or be left out.  Spots that follow take a similar approach, pointing out that other fan behaviors such as responding to daily birthday reminders or frequent sharing of food photos via social media can happen anytime and should take a backseat behind being part of the real-time sports conversation.

The campaign was developed in collaboration with creative agency 72andSunny’s New York Office. Additional commercials and elements to debut in the coming weeks.