Now in its fourth year, NBA’s “This Is Why We Play” campaign puts the focus on the fans.  This season's debut spot, “Hopes,” launches online today (see video above) and Sept. 28 on broadcast TV during pre-season games.  The NBA Kia Tip-Off will also be supported with paid media across TV, online video, digital, social, radio and OTT.

The more I study the mind, the more convinced I become that the ad industry has subtly over time marginalized creative.  Great creative is always based on a deep psychological insight that is leveraged to cause the audience to undergo a specific psychological shift of supreme importance to brand sales.  Yet as an industry we don't pay enough attention to the nature of that shift, for if we did, we would realize that the shift we are trying to induce is a fragile thing that might or might not occur depending on how well the audience is set up for it.  In other words, the context of the program or content the audience has been immersed in before the ad comes on.

Holding company shares are falling.  Their ad agencies are shrinking, with low morale, low salaries and hiring freezes.  Accenture and Deloitte are the new, growing competitors.  Advertisers are cutting spend but investing in-house.  Chief Creative Officers are disappearing, not entirely due to sexual harassment charges.  Confused by some or all of this?  Read on!