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Nike Risks Win Internet

Wisdom.Applied Wednesday: Nike Risks Win Internet

As many of you may have heard, this little event called the FIFA World Cup is in its final stages. With such a huge worldwide event that happens every four years, brands are at war to capture and capitalize on the attention of such a large audience. Although the USA was beaten by Belgium in the first game of the round of 16, the Oregon-based apparel/equipment company, Nike, has taken steps to ensure it wins the battle of the brands. Many large brands have had funny and inspiring ads such as the Hyundai “Because Fútbol” spot and the Adidas “The Dream” spot. However, after the Luis Suarez incident, Nike has taken a commanding lead with their campaign “#RiskEverything.” This Wisdom.Applied Wednesday, let’s take a closer look at the Nike campaign.

The Nike brand is no stranger to successful advertising that creates buzz. Their countless previous examples of quality ads never fail to impress, especially in digital. Two recent examples from Nike are “Find Your Greatness” and continuing the classic “Just Do It.” Their current series of videos from the larger #RiskEverything campaign, ranging from just 14 seconds to well over five minutes, has drawn record audiences not only for Nike advertising, but digital ads all together.

Here are some stats on the campaign as a whole:

  • 372 million video views combined
  • #RiskEverything tweeted over 650,000 times
  • Over 22 million engagements (making it Nike’s best social/mobile media campaign ever!)
  • Interactive initiative #AskZlatan, short videos responding to questions, with over 10.5 million views
  • One-third of the campaign’s 6 billion impressions are from mobile devices
  • “Winner Stays” and “The Last Game” are two of most watched campaign videos while the latter is one of the most shared Facebook posts

Winner Stays

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XviR7esUvo

 

The Last Game

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy1rumvo9xc

 

Both of these examples are longer than your usual TV spot but that is part of the wonders of digital, and they are well worth the time!

Nike’s CMO, Davide Grasso, said, “The idea behind “The Last Game’ is to show the world that Nike, like any true lover of football, believes that the game should be brilliant, daring and bold. Having the confidence to take risks is absolutely vital in football. Imagine a world without the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo, the acrobatics of Zlatan or the wizardry of Neymar.”

These videos are wonderfully done, creative and original, which is nice to see in today’s digital world and from such a large corporation. Sometimes with a brand as large as Nike, creativity and uniqueness can get put on the back burner. It’s great to see something that audiences can engage with and enjoy for a full five minutes.

As the World Cup finishes its last week, it will be interesting to see how brands fared and if their huge investments will pay off moving forward. If Nike’s World Cup efforts are any sign of things to come, we can all look forward to original and exciting digital campaigns from large brands. Maybe we could even get some people to enjoy soccer (good luck) here in the U.S. as well.

Cover Photo Source: Paolo Bona / Shutterstock.com

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Our-Space-The-San-Jose-Group.png[/author_image] [author_info]Ben is an Account Services Junior Executive at SJG. A recent graduate of Indiana University, he earned a degree in Communication and minors in both Spanish and Telecommunication. Outside the agency, you can always find him on the golf course, around town with friends or on his third straight hour of watching Netflix. Ben hopes to one day write a book; however, “Sh*t My Dad Says” is already taken.[/author_info] [/author]