Sportswear maker Reebok used mobile as part of an integrated campaign creating awareness around its sponsorship of the Boston Celtics player Rajon Rondo before, during and after the NBA Finals.

Reebok's goal was to establish authenticity and credibility in the basketball category through one of its hottest star athletes. Rondo and Celtic fans were encouraged to download and engage with the tagline "You got Rondo'd" through the WAP site at http://m.reebok.com/rondo where they could download a promotional ringtone, wallpapers and video content.

"The central hook for the campaign was to create a theme that would catch with Rondo fans and also a wider basketball fan group," said Marcus Spurrell, head of digital marketing at Reebok, Canton, MA. "To do this Reebok turned the name Rondo into a verb that exemplified Rajon's style of play on the court.

"Three core definitions for the new term were created and these formed the basis of supporting video creatives," he said.

To "Rondo" means to smoothly move between larger objects with dexterity and purpose, extract or remove an object quickly and efficiently without being detected and create an optical illusion or distraction followed by a swift change of direction.

The campaign ran June 2-18.

The Reebok WAP site featured information about Rondo, the history between the Lakers and the Celtics, links to Reebok's basketball gear and free Rondo wallpapers and ringtones.

Reebok's aim for this campaign was to activate the Reebok brand during a highly competitive basketball season. The campaign was also meant to create brand awareness between Reebok and Rajon Rondo.

Fans attending the NBA Final between the Boston Celtics and the LA Lakers could opt-in to receive a call every time Rondo made a spectacular move.

Upon answering the phone they'd hear a message from various ex-Celtics players saying "See that? Somebody just got Rondo'd."

Broadcasters during the NBA Final picked-up on the "You just got Rondo'd" catch-phrase which was used in their commentary during crucial moments in the game. The commentators also directed fans in the stadium to the Rondo ringtone download on the Reebok WAP site.

The WAP site saw more than 72,000 visitors with 168,000 page views.

Additionally there were 24,000 downloads and over 2,600 respondents opted-in to receive the Rondo call back.

But mobile was only one aspect of this integrated campaign.

Video content, five clips in total, was shot by Reebok in-house and placed YouTube.

A four-minute package on the campaign featuring interviews and sound bites from Reebok and Rajon Rondo were placed on Comcast. This package included the three Rondo'd definition videos.

The videos shot by Reebok were picked up by media outlets such as Comcast Sports Net (CSN), NBC 7, ABC 5, New England Sports Network (NESN). Local media pick-up throughout the Boston area experienced good outcomes, with the story reaching titles such as Boston Herald, Boston Globe and USA Today.

Blog relations activity reached an estimated number of 30 million sports and basketball fans.

"Mobile is a key strategy for Reebok's overall brand engagement and marketing strategy," Mr. Spurrell said. "An intelligent mobile platform was integrated into the new Reebok.com Web site, which lets users browse a dedicated mobile version of the Reebok.com Web site.

"Additionally, when they are browsing the main site and they see a product that interests them, they are able to send this to their mobile phone so they can take it with them to show friends and family," he said.