Video: Blazers G Damian Lillard's First National TV Ad

Earlier this week, we posted a sneak peek preview of Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard's first national television ad for adidas and Champs Sports.

The full :60 second version has launched and the :30 spot aired on Thursday night. Here's some information from an adidas press release.

Champs Sports and adidas Originals have teamed up to launch a first-of-its-kind, Tumblr-inspired advertising campaign featuring three of the most stylish athletes in professional sports. The concept: If a high-school teen's Tumblr feed came to life, what would it look like?

Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers appears in the new ad, which was produced by Portland-based creative agency Kamp Grizzly. Von Miller of the Denver Broncos and Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks also appear in the ad.

...

"The adicolor Collection, available at Champs Sports, is all about building your game with the freshest footwear and apparel from adidas," said Frank Bracken, vice president of marketing, Champs Sports.

"The guy who buys gear at Champs gets his style cues from the athletes he respects and the media he consumes. That's what drove the strategy behind our new Tumblr-style creative. It's a visual and sonic sugar rush that represents three professional athletes who have just as much game off the court as they do on it."

Since its launch in February 2007, the Tumblr microblogging platform has been used to start more than 97.7 million blogs featuring more than 44.6 billion posts. Designed to make sharing content a seamless process, more than 58.1 unique monthly visitors rely on Tumblr sites for news, video, photos and inspiration. Males 18-to-24 years of age are among the most indexed groups to visit Tumblr sites, according to comScore.

adicolor is a collection of adidas Original's iconic footwear and apparel styles featuring a wide assortment of core basics and seasonal colors. Champs Sports is the lead retail partner for adicolor in the U.S. The campaign was produced by Portland-based creative agency Kamp Grizzly.

"We are excited to showcase three of our premier athletes and their off court style in the latest adicolor campaign with Champs Sports", said Kelly Olmstead, Director Brand Marketing, adidas Sport Style. "Athletes choose their gear just as thoughtfully off the court as they do on the court. In this spot, were able shoe how adicolor allows for each athletes' originality and style to come through."

Here's the :60 second spot.

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune caught up with Lillard on the new marketing opportunities coming his way.

"The sky is the limit for Damian" in terms of endorsements, says Goodwin, who reps Lillard along with his brother, Eric Goodwin. "He's a different type of athlete, a new genre - a blue-collar guy most people didn't know about a year ago. He relates to the common man. People identify with him as opposed to somebody who was a superstar from day one.

"Damian has played really well and established himself, so the market has been created for him. The next stage is the building of a real career. We're looking for new opportunities for him, with the Cokes, the Gatorades, the McDonalds of the world. Those are the next step. It's a process - and he realizes it's a process - to build a portfolio that matches his personality."

That sounds good to Lillard, who, unlike teammate LaMarcus Aldridge, embraces the idea of helping to promote products and companies.

"I hope to have some endorsements," he says. "I'm a people type of guy. I'm a marketable guy. I have fun with that type of stuff. In a bigger market, there might be more money in it, but I'm not motivated by dollar signs. I just enjoy those type of things. I'd like to have a few national (endorsements), a couple of local things, also."

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter