TRAIL TO FORT WORTH

TIMEFRAME

1/2024 - 3/2024

SERVICES

Copywriting
Logo Design
Video Production
Radio
Fan Fest
Event Management

RECOGNITION

Lone Star Emmy Award

Category: Sports Promotion, Single Spot (Topical)

LONE STAR EMMY AWARD WINNER • SINGLE SPOT PROMOTION •

AAC BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The American Athletic Conference (AAC)has seen enormous success across all sports since its reconstitution in 2013. Most notably, teams from the AAC have won the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball championship and it was the first and only Group of Five conference to have one of its member schools represented in the College Football Playoff under the original four-team format.

Since the AAC Basketball Championships moved to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth in 2021, the tournament has not generated the buzz within the surrounding communities as they had hoped. Rally Department was tasked with creating a new ticket sales campaign and branding for the 2024 AAC Basketball Championships. This included creating a new slogan and wordmark and developing a brand new fan fest outside of Dickies Arena that was full of interactive activities specifically designed for families.

THE CHALLENGE

Playing off the overall theme of a “journey,” we coined the phrase “The Trail To Fort Worth” as the official campaign slogan for the 2024 AAC Basketball Championships. With AAC schools widely spread out throughout the southern, midwestern and eastern parts of the United States, this slogan encapsulated the many different roads each school had to take to reach Fort Worth — the site of the AAC Basketball Championships. On top of that, the conference tournament is a new journey in and of itself for each school, giving even more meaning to the slogan.

THE DEVELOPMENT

Rally Department wrote, directed and produced the official 2024 AAC Basketball Championships campaign video which was both aired as a television commercial in the DFW market, on ESPN+ broadcasts of AAC basketball games and also posted on the AAC’s various social media platforms. The video, which won a 2024 Lone Star Emmy in the Sports Promotion - Topical (Single Spot) category, combined highlights from the AAC men’s and women’s basketball regular season with artistic footage around Fort Worth that Rally Department shot. Additionally, Rally Department modified the video script and turned it into both a 30 second and 15 second radio ad that was broadcast on The Ticket, a popular Dallas-Fort Worth sports radio talk show, and on the home radio networks for each of the AAC’s schools.

COMMERCIAL SPOT

Rally Department designed and managed the AAC Basketball Championships first ever fan fest called “American Hoops Village” which was open to all ticketed fans. Located outside the east plaza of Dickies Arena, American Hoops Village was open for five days and consisted of a basketball half-court, various games including cornhole, jenga and life-size connect four, face painting, a dj, food and a beer garden. An inflatable welcome truss and 10-foot inflatable basketball were strategically placed at the entrance to American Hoops Village as photo opportunities.