How We Roll
Kristan McCants
Step aside, Phil Knight, there’s another Shoedog in town.
While it may be a little bit of a stretch to emulate the legendary business founder, to say that Nike came from humble beginnings is well within bounds.
You never know who could become the next Knight out of the thousands of small business owners to medium-sized retail merchants who rely on Clover point of sale systems to get their businesses off the ground and grow exponentially.
Hot on the heels of the award-winning “KITCHEN” commercial Closed Loop produced for Clover, Closed Loop has launched an integrated awareness campaign targeting entrepreneurial minded sports fans tuned into the network broadcast of the 2023 NBA Finals in six key markets, as well as those engaged on ESPN digital properties.
“SHOE” – the :30 spot shot by Closed Loop, focuses on a brick and mortar plus online sales footwear shop running on Clover, now integrated with Merchant One. FISERV (Clover’s parent company) announced the acquisition of Merchant One in early 2023, enhancing the reach of the Clover product line.
Breaking new ground in the digital campaign, Closed Loop is running a first of its kind format, ESPN’s new “Interactive Living Room” unit for CTV on ESPN digital properties and streaming networks under the ESPN app umbrella including: ESPN+, ESPN3, ESPNU, ESPN News, ACCN, SECN and Longhorn.
The highly customized, interactive ad unit uses QR codes and features a scrollable carousel featuring Clover products, Merchant One services and streams “SHOE”.
Clover is one of the first advertisers to take advantage of this creative placement on ESPN networks via Disney Advertising services. In addition, Closed Loop is running Clover / Merchant One display ads on ESPN.com and serving voiceover messaging focusing on Merchant One through the ESPN Podcast advertising network.
Stefanie Gonnella, Director of Display Media at Closed Loop is leading up the full-court press for Clover and Merchant One on the media buy. For widespread awareness and mass appeal, there’s nothing better than targeting live sports viewers, says Gonnella.
“In the past year, viewers spent over 6 billion minutes with ESPN streaming sports video. An impressive 49% of consumers are more engaged with interactive video ads vs. standard commercials, that’s a compelling reason to test these new formats and placements within our client strategy,” added Gonnella.
Moreover, an estimated 2.5M unique users and 1.7M households will be reached on the NBA Finals games in the six major media markets Closed Loop is targeting for Clover and Merchant One with the :30 “SHOE” spot airing on linear TV broadcast during GAME 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday, June 9, 2023.
“SHOE” will be aired in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco DMAs.
That’s a slam dunk.
PS – Watch out Phil Knight, because Clover and Closed Loop are about to drop “DOG” into commercial rotation next. Stay tuned.