Each Monday, we will share some great activation practices throughout the sports and entertainment landscape. This blog will serve as a space to highlight innovative ideas and campaigns. Want to have your idea or campaign featured? Send us a note on Twitter at @Navigate_Res. 

As one of the most successful and globally recognized athletes in the world, Michael Jordan as been a staple in promoting the Nike brand, including, of course, his Air Jordan shoe brand. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first release of the Air Jordan brand and in order to honor this momentous occasion, creative agency AKQA, video-production company Stardust, and Nike’s Jordan brand collaborated to create the world’s coolest basketball court called “The Last Shot.” While many people have experience playing Wii, the Kinect, or PlayStation Move and have some idea of the world of virtual reality, this experience is unlike anything ever created before.

So how does this world’s coolest basketball court work? Imagine you are in Michael Jordan’s shoes back in the 1998 NBA Championship: Chicago Bulls vs. Utah Jazz. You step onto the court in the final minutes of the game and your surrounded by thousands of cheering/booing fans. As many people know, this game ended with Michael Jordan hitting the game-winning jumper that lead to the Chicago Bulls 6th NBA Championship. With this augmented reality technology, you now have the opportunity to recreate that game-winning shot as Michael Jordan. The floor will light up, directing you where to move. You have live passers assisting you as you jab and cut across the court. 3-2-1…swish. You hit the final shot to win the game. 

This experience was only present during the NBA 2015 All-Star game and was free to local fans to try out. While there are currently no future plans for this installation, Brian Facchini, Global Communications Director for Jordan, hopes to allow everyone in different cities to experience this one-of-a-kind court. This could be music to the ears of potential partners. Associating with not only the Nike Jordan Brand, but the technological advancement itself, could be an extremely effective activation component, allowing a sponsor to resonate with a specific market. I mean…what sports fan wouldn’t want to relive a historical moment of one of the best athletes in the history of the game of basketball?