Toronto Raptors’ marketing team takes pride in staying ahead of game
TORONTO — On one crazy night during last year’s NBA playoffs, the Toronto Raptors’ creative team pulled off a quick-change magic trick that would have made David Blaine proud.
The Toronto Rock were playing at the Air Canada Centre on Friday evening. The Raptors were tipping off against Indiana at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
In the hours between, staff furiously decorated the ACC bowl in playoff T-shirts, carefully laying a shirt over every one of the 19,800 seats. Fans arrived for the matinee basketball game to an arena virtually painted — as if by a giant paint brush — in a camouflage pattern of black, grey and white.
“We had to put a full company callout to see who would come out that late at night (to lay out shirts),” said Shannon Hosford, the senior vice-president of marketing and fan experience (check!) for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. “We had one employee come out with her two kids, just for fun, to be part of the experience.