On the eve of the Ivy League Men’s and Women’s basketball tournament taking place at the historic Palestra in Philadelphia this weekend, the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board released a new video for social media featuring their mascot, “Monty The Fox,” and the Quaker mascot from the University of Pennsylvania.

The video highlights a series of impressive shots and a game of one-on-one basketball between the mascots to get ready for March Madness.

The VFTCB’s partnership with UPENN athletics and other regional university athletic programs helps build awareness for the Valley Forge Sports division. Youth sports is big business in Montgomery County and large-scale tournaments help fill Montco’s hotels, restaurants, and attractions. In fact, in 2017 almost half of the more than 100,000 total hotel room nights booked with the help of the Tourism Board were attributed to weekend sports tournaments.

“We are thrilled with our relationship with Valley Forge Sports and this video is a great example of how we work together with our corporate partners to increase and enhance their brand exposure through innovative collaboration in the marketplace,” said George Perry, Chief Revenue Officer for Penn Sports Properties. “We look forward to working with Valley Forge on creating many new concepts as the partnership evolves.”

The new video, featuring Monty wearing a Valley Forge Sports jersey, is the first in a series of social media videos that will highlight events and things to do in the area, including a follow up mascot video that will promote the upcoming Penn relays.

When developing the basketball video concept, VFTCB’s Creative Director, Joe Tacynec, and Marketing Director, Zach Brown, found inspiration from the memorable 1993 McDonald’s commercial, “The Showdown,” featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

“Filming at the historic Palestra, an icon in college basketball, was a great experience and the Penn staff members were a lot of fun to work with.

[uam_ad id=”54875″]