Orlando Magic
Fan Experience Platform: Brand System, Print, Environmental Media, Digital Ecosystem, Loyalty
When the Orlando Magic opened the new Amway Center, the brief was to build a relationship: bring the communities around the team closer to it, including Orlando’s growing Hispanic and Asian populations, and unite the Magic and the Amway Center behind a single strategic idea: Be Magic + Be Legendary.
The insight was belonging. Whatever your language, culture, or heritage, every fan wants to be where the action is. We designed for that instinct directly, placing fans inside the game and building every execution as part of one connected system: print, guerrilla and environmental media, out-of-home, a digital community, user profiles, rewards, and social sharing, all reinforcing a single invitation: get in the game and feel the Magic.
Print put fans in the frame alongside the franchise: a mere mortal-sized jersey hanging among the giants, everyday sneakers on the bench beneath the pros’ lockers, and Spanish-language executions that spoke to Orlando in its own voices.
Print ad: the pros’ giant jerseys on locker-room hooks, an extra medium hanging beside them; “Get in the game and feel the Magic.”
Spanish-language print ad: sneakers beneath the lockers, one civilian-sized pair lined up with the players’; “Entra el juego y disfruta la magia.”
Print ad: a Magic block at the rim; “Get in the game and feel the Magic at the new Amway Center.”
Spanish-language print ad: a dunk over Atlanta; “Entra el juego y disfruta la magia en el nuevo Amway Center.”
FanMagic.net and its companion Magic Touch smartphone app were designed as the ecosystem’s hub: a fan community built on profiles, personalization, participation, and play. Every interaction was engineered to encourage another, turning advertising into membership and attention into attendance.
FanMagic.net homepage: the Community Magic feature, a Featured Fan Card and the My Magic Points counter.
Because no fan site is complete without the ability to talk smack, fanmagic.net would feature an animated “Snuff The Magic Dragon” mascot who would hold up signage that the individual creates; allowing the sender to email trash talking messages to friends or post to social networking sites.
The trash-talking builder: pick an avatar, pick your audio, upload a photo, then share the smack talk.
In addition to uploading photos and creating individual Fan Card Profiles that can be printed, emailed to friends, and linked to social networks, the information from these profiles could be used by the Orlando Magic Organization to further create marketing platforms geared toward vendors. By creating profiles, fans would also benefit by becoming members and capitalizing on a Magic Points Rewards Program.
Create My Magic Card: fans build a shareable Fan Card profile and earn Magic Points along the way.
Amway Center / Magic Rewards Program Points would be used for food concessions, retail merchandise at the Amway Center, and tickets to Amway Center concerts and events. Top Magic Points Earners would be rewarded by attending Orlando Magic practice sessions and player meet-and-greets.
My Magic Points: the rewards panel with redeemable Magic gear, mirrored on the smartphone app.
Public space became media. The city itself was recast as an extension of the arena, so the feeling of being courtside started long before the ticket.
Bus-shelter takeover: arena seats and a courtside crowd wrap the stop; “Get in the game and feel the Magic.”
Guerrilla executions: a parking-lot basketball court, courtside seats in a restroom stall and a trash-can backboard.
My role: creative concept development, art direction, and the design of the integrated system across print, environmental media, out-of-home, and the experience concepts for FanMagic.net and the app.
ACD Art: Husani Barnwell · ACD Copy: Jason Lambert · CCO: Michael Jacobs · Art Directors: Husani Barnwell, Adrian Franks, Ilya Gleikh
Years before the industry organized itself around omnichannel journeys, loyalty ecosystems, first-party data, and gamification, this platform was already practicing them. For the Orlando Magic and the new Amway Center, Husani Barnwell helped design a connected fan ecosystem: print, environmental media and out-of-home that turned the city into the arena, plus FanMagic.net and the Magic Touch app, where profiles, shareable Fan Cards, a trash-talking mascot, and the Magic Points loyalty loop connected concessions, merchandise, tickets, and events. At its core, the work is the design of an ongoing relationship between a team and its city, built to turn belonging into attendance.