‘Tis the season… for basketball! Just in time for the 2019-20 season, we assisted our partners at GAMEVIL slam dunk the launch of NBA NOW on iOS and Android devices with some championship level PR support. As is always the case when working on an officially licensed game, the stakes were high – like, too high for Shaq levels of high – but with a little finesse and smartly timed pitching, we hit nothing but net with media coverage around the launch.

NBA NOW launched during one of the busiest news cycles for videogames of the year. Within a week, both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and The Outer Worlds hit store shelves, taking with them the brunt of media’s attention and workloads. Knowing this, we selected our best media targets and offered them the press release under embargo, three days in advance of its scheduled distribution, highlighting NBA NOW’s streamlined, one-hand controls and casual audience focused gameplay in the process. This process alone – yes, it can really be that simple sometimes – led to several outlets that seldom cover mobile games agreeing to accept the news under embargo. While this doesn’t always lead to actual coverage, putting NBA NOW and GAMEVIL top-of-mind with top-tier media is certainly useful for reminding them of our partner’s successes.

Come launch day, it was evident our pre-pitching yielded major results as NBA NOW saw no shortage of coverage. From VentureBeat to Engadget, we helped GAMEVIL beat the buzzer and overcome a majorly stacked starting line-up to get the attention an official NBA mobile game deserves. Check out some of our top hits!