The Chicago Bulls turned schedule release day into a cultural moment with a video game–inspired animation that packed in local references and NBA Easter eggs—and fans actually loved it.

Schedule release day has become a de facto holiday for fans of the NBA, NFL, and WNBA alike. This season, every NBA team published some form of schedule release content, but not all of it landed. The Toronto Raptors, for example, drew criticism with a gossip podcast parody video. The Bulls' effort stands out as a rare piece of sports social content that drew widespread praise in the comments, including multiple "well done"s and calls for the content team to get raises.

The numbers back up the reception. Less than 24 hours after the video dropped, it had accumulated more than 1.1 million views across platforms—the fourth most among NBA teams, according to data from content intelligence company Mondo Metrics and the Sponcon Sports newsletter. The Raptors' video came in at No. 7, with over 900,000 views.

Marketing Herald's sister coverage spoke with Luka Dukich, the Bulls' VP of content marketing, about how his team pulled it off.

"We make it for the group chat," Dukich said. "For us, the schedule release is just an opportunity to be uninhibited."

Built in April, inspired by the NFL

Dukich's team starts officially brainstorming the coming season's schedule release around April, timed to when NFL schedule content starts rolling out. The Bulls' content staff—led by Digital Content Director Nikko Tan—draws inspiration from that league's output and keeps a running document of ideas dating back three or four years.

The idea to use Grand Theft Auto as inspiration came up a few years ago but didn't get used right away. With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI scheduled for later this year, the timing finally made sense. The Bulls have dabbled in animated schedule releases before: a Pokémon-themed video for the 2023-24 season became a viral hit, so the team wasn't worried about skipping live players and other talent.

"It gives us space to play and do different things that are harder to do if you're doing an actual, physical shoot," Dukich said. Video-game culture is widespread and often nostalgic, "and there's all these little callbacks that people get really excited about," he added. "You don't even have to be a Bulls fan to watch that and get excited."

Chicago-coded

While the video takes place in a GTA-like universe, it leans heavily on Chicago identity. The cast starts with Bulls mascot Benny the Bull, who has more TikTok followers than the Bulls' official account and "feels like a natural video-game character, anyway," Dukich said. In the video, Benny navigates the city on a mission to pick up the schedule from Bulls forward Matas Buzelis.

"Meet me at the top of the Sears Tower so I can give it to you," Buzelis says over the phone.

The Sears Tower reference is one of several local Easter eggs. The building is officially called the Willis Tower now, but many Chicagoans still use the old name. Benny starts at the United Center, travels to the Loop in downtown Chicago, and passes by the Chicago River.

"There's those little things where it just feels really natural," Dukich said. "There's a car just littered with parking tickets, as we have all experienced, having driven in Chicago…You see all the locations, but there's also just a really Chicago feel to it, and I think that's the stuff that's real and that resonates."

Deep-cut NBA humor

The video is also full of NBA references, from player name-drops spanning multiple teams to what Dukich called "deep-cut NBA culture jokes." Those include a reference to Bill Simmons's legendary colonoscopy on the day Jaylen Brown was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, plus the Pacers couple that went viral for arguing—apparently about the value of a liberal arts education—at a game.

"That's the stuff that gets you to watch it multiple times to try to see, 'What did I miss?'" Dukich said. "That's what makes the best type of schedule release."

The Bulls content team focuses on brand-oriented goals rather than hard business metrics like ticket sales, which makes stats like watch time the key measure. Standing out is difficult given the cluttered sports content ecosystem, shortening attention spans, and the offseason lull. As of Aug. 20, about a week after the video dropped, the release had over 150,000 engagements and almost 4 million impressions, plus a slew of positive comments.

"We got people talking about and engaging with the Bulls in the middle of August," Dukich said. "That's such a win. It brought a little smile and happiness to a bunch of people, and that's a pretty cool feeling."

Source: Marketing Brew (https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/chicago-bulls-easter-egg-schedule-release-video?utm_source=&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=feed) / Source: linkedin.com (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7495075559220215808/)