Sun Sports’ HEAT Week a South Florida Success

Four months removed from a championship parade celebrating the Miami HEAT’s back-to-back NBA World Championships, FOX’s Sun Sports turned up the temperature on South Florida in the days leading up to Miami’s regular season opener. 

HEAT Week, a week-long celebration on the network, began on Tuesday, Oct. 22 with a robust programming lineup and a grass-roots activation that kept HEAT fans buzzing about their favorite basketball team. Read on for an in-depth recap:

Programming

• Aired more than 50 hours of exclusive and unique HEAT programming over eight days (10/22-10/29). The week included two live HEAT preseason games, re-airs of the 2013 NBA Final victories, a two-hour original film covering the HEAT’s second consecutive championship season, an Inside the HEAT preseason special showcasing the team’s offseason preparation, a re-air of the 2013 NBA Championship Parade and Celebration and classic Inside the HEAT episodes.  

• Each night of HEAT Week, HEAT programming registered strong ratings numbers, highlighted by the preseason games averaging over a 3 HH rating and the NBA Finals re-airs averaging over a 1 HH rating. 

• Ad Sales sold HEAT Week title sponsorship to Domino’s Pizza.  

Production 

• The statues were featured on-air during one of the preseason games during HEAT Week:

Marketing / PR

• The massive statues were built by local vendor Primetime Amusements. Reaching 18-, 16- and 20-feet respectively, they were made from Styrofoam and hard-coated and professionally painted. Each day, the statues moved to a different, iconic location in South Florida where HEAT fans were prompted to use a pair of designated hashtags. From Miami Beach to Coconut Grove, the statues were placed in pedestrian friendly, high-traffic areas, including prime placement near the AmericanAirlines Arena on opening night.

•  The FOX Sports Florida Girls were on-site at multiple locations to meet and greet fans. 

 

•  In conjunction with the grass roots statue activation, a sweepstakes was launched offering HEAT fans admission for two to opening night, courtesy of FOX Sports Florida. More than 380 fans entered to win via Twitter over the course of five days.

• Prompted by social media and on-air promotions, scores of fans flocked to have their picture taken in front of the statues. The hashtags were used a combined total of 976 times on Twitter and Instagram, and over 150 pictures were featured on a FOXSportsFlorida.com photo wall powered by Mass Relevance: http://www.foxsportsflorida.com/nba/miami-heat/heat_week_2013

• Sample OAP:

 

•          The statues received local media coverage including:
•  Sun Sentinel
• Sun Sentinel Photo Cap
• VamosTV
• Local 10 News
• FOXSportsFlorida.com
• Univision (right)