We helped launch the Washington Commanders' new name and identity, then made their first season and the reveal of their first-ever mascot: ten films, from the 2.2.22 teaser to Major Tuddy. #HTTC
10 projects by RIOT, creative agency partner to Washington Commanders
In 2022 Washington's NFL team became the Washington Commanders, the name it will keep for good, and our creative agency made the films that helped launch it: the teaser that set the date, the film that revealed the name, the films that honored ninety years of history, a first season of trailers and social, and the arrival of the team's first-ever mascot. Ten films in thirteen months, for one of the most loyal fan bases in sport.
Before it was the Washington Commanders, a storied franchise spent eighteen months choosing a forever name with fans, alumni, players and the community around D.C., Maryland and Virginia. It had to land in a single morning, and it had to land first with the people who had waited longest for it.
Washington Football Team: New Identity Trailer →
It started with a date. Our forty-four-second teaser went out on the TODAY show in January and gave the country 2.2.22 to circle: a run of twos for a fresh start. It set the tone for everything after it: confident, proud, and built on the team's history rather than running from it.
Washington Commanders: Official Rebrand Film →
On 2 February the Washington Commanders name, story and identity arrived together, with the official rebrand film at the center of it. We co-created it with the team, and it became our most-viewed film to date: more than 20 million views across social, over 3 million on Twitter alone.
A new name only works if it honors the old one, so we made two films that went in opposite directions.
The Brand Evolution tells the franchise's story through its helmets, decade by decade, shot at the team's facility in Ashburn, Virginia, with every scuff and dent left where the game put it. Historical Journey goes the other way: archive footage, black and white into color, building to the new name.
Then the Commanders had to play. Their first season under the new name needed a trailer, a draft night and a feed that felt like the team it was talking about.
The Commanders' 2022 Season Trailer casts the roster as something close to superheroes, cut on the beat in our edit (the timeline became the first episode of our Timeline Tuesday series). Command the Draft brought the same charge to draft season, and Scary Season took Halloween week: a horror-movie short for the game against the Colts, named for wide receiver Terry "Scary Terry" McLaurin.
Nice work. This is exactly what I was envisioning, the right amount of weirdness. Really cool.
Roman Shuman, Senior Creative Director, Washington Commanders
Commanders fans had chosen the team's first mascot decades before anyone asked them. "The Hogs" were the offensive line behind Washington's Super Bowl wins in the 1980s and early 1990s, and the Hogettes, fans in dresses and pig snouts, cheered them on for nearly thirty years. When the Commanders put the mascot to a vote, the hog won with close to half of the votes.
Our tongue-in-cheek trailer played on the stadium screens at halftime, and its last shot was built so that Major Tuddy seemed to be waiting in the wings, a beat before he ran out onto the field for the first time.
For the fans who wanted all of it, Making the Mascot follows the character from the fan vote and the first sketches to the hand-built suit at Bam Mascots in Toronto, with the late coach Joe Bugel in the archive explaining how the Hogs got their name. We wrote up why the Commanders mascot is a pig in the journal.
Two months after the reveal the Washington Commanders asked us for one more film: the whole launch told back as a case study for its Cannes Lions entry, voiced by former Washington running back Tim Hightower. It ends on the line the rebrand was built for: "We're all Commanders."
More of our work in sport, from SoulCycle's instructor films to Red Bull's screens in Times Square, lives on our sports and fitness creative agency page.
What the Washington Commanders team wrote to us the moment they first saw the work, straight from the inbox.
“This is epic! Love the coloring, it is going to look insane.”
Blaise BasileSenior Manager, Content Visuals, Washington CommandersYou're in good company.
Making something for a team, a league or a sports brand? A few lines is enough to start. We read every brief the same day, then set up a call or a meeting to talk it through, and tailor a plan and a bid from there.
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