Underdawg Campaign
Connecticut Sun | 2025 End-of-Season Awards Campaign
They weren’t expected to lead. They weren’t supposed to shine. And that’s exactly why they will.
AT A GLANCE
CLIENT | Connecticut Sun (WNBA)
MY ROLE | Creative Director & Executive Producer
CAMPAIGN WINDOW | August 1 – September 10, 2025 (launched August 19, 2025)
FEATURED TALENT | Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow, Leïla Lacan
DISCIPLINES | Brand strategy, creative direction, photo & video production, copywriting, social, paid media, cause marketing
PARTNERS | Lux Bond & Green (jewelry partner) · Connecticut Humane Society · Be Great Academy (location)
01
OVERVIEW
Every year, the WNBA’s end-of-season awards shape how players are recognized, valued, and remembered in the history of the sport. And every year, the Connecticut Sun — consistently one of the league’s top teams — watched its players get overlooked in national award conversations.
In 2025, the Sun had three first-year players putting up seasons worth talking about: Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow, and Leïla Lacan. National attention was limited, and voter sentiment favored big-market narratives. Instead of ignoring that, we built a campaign around it.
The Underdawg Campaign reframed being overlooked as a badge of honor and a rallying cry. Drawing on New England’s gritty underdog identity, 90s hip-hop luxury, and bold one-liner copywriting, it presented these rookies the way fans had never seen them — stylish, powerful, unapologetic — and gave fans, partners, and media a reason to say their names.
02
THE CHALLENGE
Recognition in women’s sports often lags behind performance. Award voters respond to the storylines they hear most, and those storylines rarely start in a small market like Connecticut.
■ Limited national attention. The Sun’s rookies weren’t getting the media coverage their peers in bigger markets received.
■ A crowded award season. The 2025 rookie class was loaded with high-profile names, making it harder for under-the-radar players to break through.
■ A short window. The campaign had roughly six weeks at the end of the regular season to shift the conversation before voting closed.
PRIMARY GOALS
Make the case for Rivers, Morrow, and Lacan in All-Rookie conversations; drive fan engagement; build brand affinity and long-term equity around the Sun’s player-development story; and showcase player personalities both on and off the court.
03
THE INSIGHT
It’s not an insult. It’s a brand.
Being underestimated wasn’t a weakness to hide. It was the story. These players had earned every minute, every stat, and every headline they got — nobody handed them anything. If we leaned into the underdog identity instead of away from it, we could give fans something to rally behind and give media a fresh, stat-backed angle in a cluttered award season.
Stylizing the name as Underdawg turned a familiar sports trope into something with swagger — a nod to hip-hop culture and to the hunger, toughness, and loyalty of a dog that won’t back down.
04
THE CREATIVE
CONCEPT: UNDERDOG (DAWG).
A retro-future visual campaign fusing 90s hip-hop luxury with underground grit. The reference point was iconic 90s editorial imagery — fur coats, a vintage whip, a Doberman at your side — mashed up with stat overlays and raw footage of hustle on the court.
Tone: Raw. Bold. Defiant. Gritty.
The aesthetic bridged street credibility and luxury aspiration, positioning the players not just as athletes but as cultural icons who had earned their place at the table. Through a photo and video shoot at Be Great Academy, the athletes were styled in high-fashion, street-inspired looks — fur, bold color, athletic styling, and jewelry from the Sun’s exclusive jewelry partner, Lux Bond & Green — alongside dogs as a metaphor for hunger and loyalty.
THE COPYWRITING FRAMEWORK
The voice was built to be short, sharp, and made for repetition. Every line had to work on a graphic, as an opener for a reel, or as a caption fans could repost.
Hashtags: #UnderDAWG (primary), #EarnedNotGiven
05
STRATEGY & AUDIENCE
The campaign had to work for very different people at once — the core voting base, hometown loyalists, college crossover fans, culture-driven Gen Z audiences, cause-driven consumers, and the media voices who shape award buzz. Each segment got its own entry point into the same story.
VALUE PROPOSITIONS
■ For fans: Support players who earned every minute, every stat, every headline.
■ For partners: Connect with an unapologetic, powerful narrative about defying the odds.
■ For media: Distinct player growth arcs to feature in a cluttered award season.
■ For community: Every share fuels real impact — for the players and for shelter animals.
06
EXECUTION
Assets spanned organic social, in-arena, broadcast, and paid media, all built from a single shoot and one copy system so the message stayed consistent at every touchpoint.
ROLLOUT IN THREE PHASES
Channels. Organic social (Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook), email, app and SMS alerts, in-arena activations, and paid amplification across Meta, TikTok Spark Ads, YouTube Shorts, and Google Display — targeting WNBA and college women’s basketball fans, past game attendees, animal lovers, and culture-driven audiences.
07
CAUSE MARKETING: UNDERDAWGS HELPING UNDERDOGS
The dog imagery opened a door to something bigger than the court. We extended the campaign into a pet adoption initiative that gave fans a tangible way to make an impact — and gave them one more reason to share.
Support the rise. Save a life.
For every share of Underdawg content across social media, the Sun teamed up with its exclusive jewelry partner, Lux Bond & Green, to match donations of up to $3,000 for the Connecticut Humane Society.
The give-back did three jobs at once: it added a feel-good reason to share, it turned every repost into a measurable act of support, and it positioned the Sun as a franchise that uses its platform responsibly. It also gave a corporate partner an authentic, values-driven role in the campaign beyond product placement.
08
RECOGNITION & IMPACT
The campaign was recognized with a 2026 Clio Communicator Award for Excellence in Sports & Entertainment. On the court, the rookies gave the campaign its receipts:
■ Saniya Rivers became the fastest guard in two decades to reach 50+ steals and 25+ blocks, and led all rookies in blocks.
■ Aneesah Morrow became the first Sun rookie in more than a decade to reach 200+ rebounds.
■ Leïla Lacan ranked second in the league in steals per game and earned Associated Press All-Rookie Team honors.
Beyond the numbers, the campaign shifted how these players were talked about — from “overlooked” to “Underdawg. Earned. Deserved.” — and strengthened the Connecticut Sun’s identity as a bold, fearless voice in women’s sports.
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
09
MY ROLE
As Creative Director and Executive Producer, I led the campaign from concept to delivery:
■ Developed the strategy, the Underdawg positioning, and the audience framework
■ Set the creative direction — the 90s hip-hop luxury aesthetic, styling, and visual language
■ Built the copywriting framework and scripted the video voiceover
■ Executive produced the photo and video shoot and led the cross-functional creative team
■ Desinged the cause marketing initiative with our Corporate Partnership teams and integrating our jewelry partner, Lux Bond & Green
■ Planned the three-phase rollout across social, in-arena, broadcast, and paid media
10
Campaign Gallery
CREDITS
Creative Director / Executive Producer
Asia L. McMillan
Director of Photography / Graphic Designer
Hakiel Hemans
Cinematographer / Editor
Padraig Haughton
Photographer / Editor
Trey Wilson
Video Editor
Kameron Crowe
BTS Video / Graphic Designer
Amir Sumani
Content Manager / Producer
Enis Perez
Social Media Specialist / Production Assistant
Audrey Leach
Producer
Alexandra Maund
Key Talent
Aneesah Morrow, Saniya Rivers, Leïla Lacan
Makeup Artist
Taylor-Shae McGarrah
Jewelry
Lux Bond & Green
Location
Be Great Academy