CT Sun Black History Month Campaign
AT A GLANCE
BRAND
Connecticut Sun (WNBA)
MY ROLE
Creative Director & Art Director
CAMPAIGN WINDOW
February 1 – March 1, 2026 (hero launch February 6)
HERO FEATURE
Morgan Tuck, General Manager
STAFF SPOTLIGHTS
Eight front office leaders across PR, sales, ticketing, content, creative, DEI, and community relations
RESULTS
391K impressions (+128% YoY) · 17.6K engagements (+177% YoY) · 0% negative sentiment
DISCIPLINES
Brand storytelling, creative direction, documentary video, editorial photography, copywriting, PR & communications, social
DELIVERABLES
Hero video “Legacy in Motion” (#LegacyInMotion), social cutdowns, editorial photo sets, nine website features, quote graphics, press materials
01
OVERVIEW
Black History Month content in sports often looks backward: archival photos, historical firsts, a quote graphic and a hashtag. For 2026, we wanted the Connecticut Sun to tell a story that honored legacy and also showed what is being built right now, inside our own building.
We anchored the series in Morgan Tuck, the Sun’s General Manager. Tuck won four straight NCAA championships at UConn, was drafted third overall by the Sun in 2016, and won a WNBA title with the Seattle Storm in 2020. She then came back to Connecticut, worked her way up from Director of Franchise Development to Assistant GM, and was named General Manager in December 2024 at age 30. That made her the youngest GM in the league.
The Black History Month Spotlight Series told that journey as a three-act documentary story, and then extended it to the Black and African-American staff across our front office. The result positioned the Sun as a people-first organization that develops leaders beyond the game.
02
THE CHALLENGE
Heritage-month campaigns are easy to make and easy to ignore. Fans and media see a wave of similar content every February, and much of it reads as an obligation rather than a story.
■ Breaking through the February noise. Every team and brand posts for Black History Month. We needed a story only the Sun could tell.
■ Making it about the future, not just the past. The goal was a forward-looking message about leadership pipelines and representation, not a history lesson.
■ Getting historic claims right. A story built on “firsts” and “youngest” falls apart if a single fact is wrong, so every milestone had to be verified before launch.
■ Offseason timing. February sits deep in the WNBA offseason, with no games to build around, so the content had to carry the brand on its own.
PRIMARY GOALS
Position the Sun as a leader in representation and leadership development; elevate Morgan Tuck as a trailblazing executive voice in women’s sports; generate earned media tied to leadership and legacy; and create a repeatable framework for staff and player storytelling.
03
THE INSIGHT
Leadership doesn’t end when the jersey comes off.
Black history is about legacy, and it is also about building what comes next. Tuck’s story showed both. She is a former player and champion who now shapes the future of a franchise from the front office. Her career makes a point fans rarely see: the path from the court to leadership is real, and it is open.
Building the series around one hero story, then widening it to the staff who make the organization run, turned a heritage month into a statement about who the Sun invests in.
04
THE CREATIVE
A THREE-ACT NARRATIVE
HERO VIDEO: “LEGACY IN MOTION”
Style: Documentary-led, intimate, cinematic. Tone: Reflective, confident, forward-looking.
The hero film paired a sit-down interview with archival playing and championship footage, then moved into the present: Tuck walking the arena, leading in the office, and overlooking the court. A two-camera setup (a medium A-cam interview with tight B-cam emotional cut-ins) kept it personal. It closed with a tunnel walk-away and the end card “From the Court to the Front Office.”
The interview was built to move through all three acts. It covered the moments that stood out in her playing career, what the game still teaches her as a leader, when she knew it was time to step off the court, and what she hopes the next generation of Black women in sports leadership takes from her journey.
| Legacy means impact and the impact that you leave behind. - MORGAN TUCK, GENERAL MANAGER
INTERVIEW & VOICEOVER DIRECTION
EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The photo direction set Tuck apart from game-day imagery. The look was neutral tones, structured silhouettes, and minimal branding (a single CT Sun pin), so the images read as executive portraits rather than athletic ones.
VISUAL SYSTEM
One series identifier, a clear type hierarchy for quotes and headlines, neutral editorial backgrounds, and subtle Connecticut Sun color accents. Every template was built to scale across the hero feature and the staff spotlights and to be archived for future heritage months.
05
STRATEGY & COMMUNICATIONS
The campaign ran as an integrated content and PR effort, with one message carried across earned, owned, and internal channels.
KEY MESSAGES
■ Investing in people beyond the game builds stronger organizations
■ Representation in leadership matters
■ Lived experience strengthens decision-making
■ Black History Month is about legacy and building the future
AUDIENCES
National and regional sports media, women’s sports business reporters, and DEI and leadership publications; fans and community members; and internal stakeholders across ownership, the front office, basketball operations, and the league office.
GETTING THE FACTS RIGHT
Because the story leaned on historic milestones, we built issues management into the plan from the start. Every claim was fact-checked, the same language was used on every platform, and the messaging put Tuck’s qualifications and experience first. That kept the focus on what she has achieved and protected the story from being picked apart.
06
EXECUTION
ONE HERO STORY, A FULL FRONT OFFICE
The hero shoot took place January 28, 2026. Tuck anchored the month, and from February 9, two to three staff spotlights a week celebrated Black and African-American members of the Sun’s front office. Each one paired a professional portrait and quote graphic with a written interview on leadership paths, representation, access, and legacy, published as a feature on the team website. A consistent visual and narrative framework tied every piece back to the series.
ROLLOUT IN FOUR WEEKS
ASSET SUITE
Hero caption. “From the court to the front office. Morgan Tuck’s journey is one of leadership, evolution, and impact.” On LinkedIn, the copy shifted to the business audience: “Morgan Tuck’s leadership journey reflects what’s possible when organizations invest in people beyond the game.”
07
RESULTS & IMPACT
The series delivered the strongest Black History Month performance in the Sun’s recent history. With nearly double the posts of 2025, impressions more than doubled and engagements nearly tripled, while engagement rate rose even as volume grew.
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE, THREE-YEAR VIEW
CONVERSATION & SENTIMENT
Brandwatch social listening (February 1 – March 1, 2026) showed the campaign growing the conversation around the Sun, not just the reach of its own posts.
■ Peak on launch day. Conversation peaked February 6, the day the hero video dropped, driven by reposts and #LegacyInMotion.
■ Fans carried the message. 66% of engagement was reposts and shares, with legacy, leadership, community, access, and generational impact as the trending themes.
■ A younger, female-skewed audience. Gen Z made up 56% of the conversation and women 58%, confirming the campaign as a youth and female brand-affinity driver.
The results changed how the organization plans. Leadership now treats Black History Month as a recurring strategic brand pillar rather than a standalone content series, with legacy storytelling extended into Women’s History Month and future activations built across Partnerships, Community Relations, Ticketing, and Event Presentation.
| I think any little girl can become a GM if they want to. - MORGAN TUCK
08
MY ROLE
As Creative Director and Art Director, I led the series from concept to delivery:
■ Developed the concept, the three-act narrative, and the core message
■ Wrote the creative treatment, shot lists, interview questions, and voiceover direction
■ Art directed the hero shoot and set the photo direction and scalable visual system for the series
■ Built the integrated PR and communications plan with key messages, audiences, and issues management
■ Planned the four-week rollout and social toolkit across owned, earned, and internal channels
■ Extended the hero feature into a front-office staff spotlight series
