NBC Sports is opening its second season of NBA coverage by going full superhero. For the 2026-2027 campaign, the network and Peacock are turning six of the league’s biggest stars—Jalen Brunson, Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jayson Tatum, Stephen Curry and LeBron James—into illustrated comic-book characters.
The campaign, called Tip Off, is built around the first-ever American Express NBA Tip-Off triple-header on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons starts at 3 p.m. ET, Philadelphia 76ers at defending champion New York Knicks at 7 p.m. ET, and Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs at 9:30 p.m. ET.
One big idea, 30 local versions
The structure is the smart part. Every one of the 30 NBA teams gets its own comic cover and story built around its own star players. Lyndsay Signor, senior vice president of sports marketing at Universal Television Entertainment Group, told Adweek the team wanted the storytelling to “feel authentic to their stories, and their star players on each team.”
That turns a national campaign into a local one. A San Antonio fan sees a Spurs cover, a comics fan sees artwork that competes with mainstream titles, and both are pulled toward the same tip-off moment. Veteran comic artists Ryan Benjamin and Ryan Odagawa—whose credits include Batman, Star Wars and Marvel’s Invincible Iron Man—illustrated the covers.
Distribution is part of the creative
- ComplexCon LA, Oct. 3-4: an immersive NBC Sports Tip-Off Comic Newsstand gives out complimentary copies.
- New York Comic Con, from Oct. 8: branded “newsies” distribute limited comics, while a 10-foot-tall installation appears around Manhattan.
- Rockefeller Center, Oct. 19-20: the installation lands at 30 Rock for NBA Jersey Day and the American Express NBA Tip-Off, with the Today show and NBC Sports’ NBA studio show broadcasting from the plaza.
The comic itself is narrated by NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Tirico, tying the brand’s on-air talent into the campaign rather than leaving it as a separate media buy.
Why this matters for marketers
Signor said NBC is doubling down on what worked in its first NBA season: fan-first marketing, insights from Peacock and social platforms, and cross-NBCUniversal partnerships. Those partnerships have put Bravo’s Real Housewives courtside and wrapped Universal Pictures’ Minions into NBA Playoffs content.
For brands with multiple markets or product lines, this is a useful alternative to one-size-fits-all creative. The campaign world is consistent enough to be recognizable, but each cover is specific enough to generate local pride and fan conversation. The playbook is clear: keep one creative world consistent, then adapt the execution for each segment so every audience sees itself inside it. Use physical activations and owned talent as distribution, and let adjacent fandoms widen the funnel without abandoning the core product.
Source: Adweek
