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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

Every Wednesday at 9:36 AM EST, I break down the blueprint for basketball culture, covering industry insights, marketing strategies, and creator tools and resources.

Let’s get started…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

Winning the championship is one thing but winning the moment is another.

Here’s how brands activated around Michigan and UCLA’s national titles:

MEN’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONS - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN:

🏨 The JW Marriott Indianapolis displayed the world's largest bracket (72,000 square feet, equivalent to the size of 12 basketball courts) and placed the Michigan logo at the end to celebrate their tournament victory.

🗞️ Gatorade partnered with digital artist Tyler Upchurch to create a Maize Craze championship newspaper graphic.

🎮 Epic Games and Fortnite did their annual #1 Victory Royale championship graphic.

📸 SLAM dropped a special edition natty cover with Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKinney.

🗽 The Empire State Building lit up in Michigan’s Maize and Blue colors to celebrate their moment.

〽️ Jordan Brand let everyone know that Michigan is building and proving that they are the college basketball blueprint.

🍔 Morez “Rez” Johnson gave out a free small fry and Frosty with Wendy’s thanks to one of his epic championship game dunks.

WOMEN’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONS - UCLA:

🔺 Russell Westbrook, a UCLA alum and Jordan Brand athlete, narrated the Jumpman’s video about UCLA WBB’s Pyramid of Success, paying homage to Coach John Wooden’s framework.

🪪 Topps partnered with Gabriela Jaquez and Cori Close on exclusive trading cards with Jaquez’s 1-of-1 including a game-worn patch inside the card and Close’s 1-of-1 including a piece of confetti from the celebration.

🏀 Togethxr produced a multi-part series featuring the mothers of Michelle Betts and Kiki Rice to share these athletes' incredible stories.

🌴 Los Angeles showed love to UCLA with the LA Dodgers and LA Sparks shouting out team on their championship moment.

📸 SLAM dropped a special edition national championship cover with Gabriela Jaquez and Lauren Betts.

🥤 SONIC Drive-In took care of the team on their flight back to campus to celebrate their championship.

🗽 The Empire State Building lit up in UCLA’s Blue and Gold colors to celebrate their moment.

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FREE THROWS

Sharing the tools and resources that I’m using this week:

🎓 Anthropic Courses - A free digital course to give you the frameworks and foundations on using AI for everyday work tasks.

📲 CILA - Track any public social media account to see which viral content formats are working right now.

🌐 SitDeck - See what’s happening across the world by building your own Situation Deck that pulls from hundreds of live data sources across markets, news, and more.

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading! Here are a few ways we can stay connected:

🤝 Partner With Me: I work with brands, athletes and creators across their brand strategy, digital media, creator programs, partnerships, and marketing growth. Interested in working together? Get in touch here.

📊 Be First: I’m building Future Blueprint Sports — the definitive discovery and intelligence platform for sports marketing and creator culture. Get early access today.

👋 Stay Connected: Enjoyed this newsletter? Share it with a friend or colleague. Also follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for more sports marketing and creator insights.

Thanks and see you later this week!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻