Love the Eagles Hype Videos? Meet the Branding Agency Behind Them

As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, there’s nothing quite like the team’s hype videos. You know the ones — where Bradley Cooper calls an Eagles-Giants game “Wall Street against Broad Street” and Brian Dawkins screams about how “good enough, doggone it, isn’t good enough!”

Here’s the newest video to kick off the 2015 season — just try to watch it without getting hyped up:

For three years, the videos have been produced by Philly-based branding agency 160over90, a 150-employee company has high-profile clients like Ferrari, Under Armor and UCLA.

The partnership with the Eagles started with a video kicking off the 2013 season, where the team debuted a new coach, new president, new general manager — and tons of question marks. Sure, the Eagles would be assured lots of interest and high ticket sales, but the team needed a new image and wanted to show fans it understood their frustrations and aspirations for a winner. So it launched this “tough love” video:

https://vimeo.com/73491063

The video got 1.3 million views and the accompanying TV, outdoor and online campaigns garnered more than 110,000 impressions. The Eagles also gained 63,000 Facebook fans and 113,000 Twitter followers over the course of the season. It was even featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“We knew we had something good, but we were all amazed by reception we got,” said Darryl Cilli, 160over90’s founder and chief creative officer. “TV stations were playing it during news broadcasts, and people were talking about it on sports radio. We were all surprised at the overwhelmingly positive reaction it got from the public.”

Just like that, a genre was born.

Now, the Eagles publish a new video before the each season, then more before big games or after big wins. There’s no set publishing schedule, which probably makes it more exciting when they pop up.

“It’s a way to keep the dialogue going with the fan base,” said Cilli. The videos seem to resonate because “this team has a very reciprocal relationship with the city,” Cilli continued. “They feed off each other. They fuel each other.”

160over90 also does outdoor ads and online campaigns for the Birds. (Remember the recent “Avoid 95” billboard featuring linebacker Mychal Kendricks? That was them too.)

But the agency goes far beyond football. With offices in Philly, Gainesville, Fla. and Newport Beach, Calif. it’s got a varied client list. For Ferrari, the company developed a video series around the Ferrari Challenge North America and generated interest in Corso Pilota, Ferrari’s precision driving academy. For Nike Tennis, 160over90 created the “Irreverence Re-Justified” campaign, helping Nike Tennis gain 100,000 likes just three weeks after it launched its new Facebook page.

As for the Eagles videos, the team has final edits and allow 160over90 staff access to players and even lets them film inside the tunnel before the team runs onto the field before games. Each video takes about three to four months from inception to completion. That entails perfecting the script, editing the highlight video and securing a celebrity narrator. Following up on a popular video year-after-year isn’t easy.

“It’s a daunting task,” Cilli admitted. “It gets a such a great reception every year that you have an obligation to put something out that’s even better that carries the message of the team.” But people’s awareness and anticipation of the videos makes their social media penetration even that much better.

“Every year this thing just gets hotter and hotter and goes wider and wider,” he said.

Another fan favorite was this one, featuring Bradley Cooper getting us ready for the Eagles-Cowboys game on Thanksgiving last season:

https://youtu.be/ThDFpQeYvTw

Will the hype video eventually become a standard for all NFL teams? Cilli thinks so.

“The Eagles were creating these back to football videos years ago, when other organizations weren’t — and executing them at a different level,” said Cilli. “The rest of NFL has noticed. You’ll see in the coming years other NFL teams trying to do what the Eagles have already done.”

But the advertising innovation starts with a commitment from the highest levels of the organization.

“[Eagles Owner] Jeffrey Lurie and [President] Don Smolenski are committed to telling these stories in an honest, genuine way that connects with the fan base,” said Cilli. “You can tell in meetings how deeply they care for fans. That’s why they put such care and craft into the videos. It’s a love letter to the city and fans, that’s why they resonate so deeply with so many different people.”