33 custom emojis to cover the NBA All-Star Weekend

Ahead of the NBA All-Star weekend which kicks off in Toronto over the weekend, Twitter has rolled out 33 custom emojis dedicated to the event. It is the largest amount of emojis the platform has launched for a sports fixture.
In comparison with Super Bowl, Twitter unveiled “only” 9 custom emojis for the foot US event.
For the All-Star match, all 24 All-Stars have their own emojis modelled on themselves like a crown for #LeBronJames or a snake for #KobeBryant. Former players like Shaquille O’Neal or basketball journalists like Ernie Johnson have also been given their own custom emoji.

The whole fixture will be covered by one official hashtag, #NBAAllStarTO which will be accompanied by a Canadian maple leaf emoji.

Check out the @twitter emojis for #NBAAllStarTO! All you got to do is tweet an All Star's #FirstNameLastName pic.twitter.com/6D26rwcJzA

— NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2016

Manchester United teams up with Deadpool

To promote its movie Deadpool, 20th Century Fox launched a pretty cool new ad campaign with Premier League giant Manchester United where the superhero is dreaming to be apart of United’s squad and is pictured with Wayne Rooney, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Chris Smalling, David De Gea and Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The activation was launched as part of an agreement between the club and the film distributor, 20th Century Fox. The deal will see the organisation promote its others movies in partnership with the Red Devils including X-Men: Apocalypse and Independence Day: Resurgence.

Manchester United’s group managing director Richard Arnold said they were proud to team up with a leader in cinema industry.

“We are delighted to be able to work with them in introducing each other to new audiences, creating unique content, such as the players’ recent encounter with Deadpool,” he said.

AS Roma launch a Greek language Twitter account

After rolling out its Chinese WeChat account, Italian football giant AS Roma is improving its international digital expansion with the launch of a new Twitter handle in Greek (@asromagreek).

In the same way that FC Barcelona opened a Turkish language account, the club aims to reach its fans base in Greece with many fans following the fortunes of Greek internationals in Roma squad Kostas Manolas and Vasilis Torosidis.

The new account means the club can now communicate with Greek fans around the world.

Nike hires its first Chief Digital Officer

Sports apparel leader Nike has named Adam Sussman as Chief Digital Officer to run all products and services across Nike.com, Nike+ and brand social and digital platforms.

Sussman, who was previously Nike’s head of global strategy and development, has a strong mobile and social-gaming experience after working at Zynga, Disney’s gaming arm and EA Mobile.

President of Nike Brands Trevor Edwards believes Sussman will help Nike significantly boost engagement across Nike’s digital platforms.

“Adam is just as passionate about solving a problem for one athlete as he is introducing that innovation to a global community. 2016 promises to be a big year for the world of Nike digital, and this is just the beginning,” he said.