For the primary time in 27 years, we noticed a Nike business within the Tremendous Bowl. Has it actually been that lengthy? Laborious to imagine that one in every of—if not the—world’s biggest advertising manufacturers hasn’t been on the massive sport stage for nearly three many years. “Hare Jordan” is arguably a Prime 10 all-time Tremendous Bowl advert.
Blame complacency, the fragmentation of media and tradition, or no matter you want, however getting the swoosh again to the Tremendous Bowl simply feels proper. Not solely that, however the model is utilizing this chance to re-establish its hardcore athlete bonafides, in case anybody forgot.
Created with Wieden+Kennedy, and narrated by Grammy winner Doechii, right here we get a cranked up, black and white movie, set to Led Zeppelin’s “Entire Lotta Love.” It options high athletes like ballers Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, JuJu Watkins and Sabrina Ionescu; footballer Alexia Putellas, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, and extra, all exhibiting the assorted methods they’re proving critics mistaken.
Chief advertising officer Nicole Hubbard Graham says the model returned to the Tremendous Bowl in an effort to faucet into one of many only a few mass, shared cultural experiences we’ve got left. “Fascinated about the Tremendous Bowl and desirous about this second, it felt very well timed to inform this athlete story,” says Graham. “Girls are simply completely shattering information proper now, promoting out stadiums, ticket gross sales, commanding contracts such as you’ve by no means seen earlier than, and being positioned with in all probability a few of the harshest expectations of the way you’re purported to act. And I feel they’ll redefine what it means to be athletes and personalities of the long run.”
Down in your luck. Nobody believes. The percentages are stacked. Nike is utilizing probably the most dependable premise in all epic sports activities tales to not solely make some extent about any particular person athlete, and the state of ladies’s sports activities, but additionally to offer a not-so delicate center finger to all of the shade the model itself has been thrown over the previous 12 months or so.
Perspective adjustment
Quickly after Graham took over as CMO, her first order of enterprise was to speak to the model’s elite steady of athletes. What she heard most frequently was the notion of profitable had a shedding status on the earth. “The entire thought of being maniacally targeted and obsessive and following your goals to no finish was kind of turning into slightly bit taboo in society,” says Graham. “We thought that was a extremely attention-grabbing perception. And that led to the Olympic work.”
“Profitable Isn’t For Everybody” was an ode to the uncompromisingly competitive. Narrated by Willem Dafoe, the work was paying homage to Nike’s marketing campaign for the 1996 Olympic Summer time Video games in Atlanta that featured the tagline, “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.” As I wrote on the time, the brand new Olympic work marked a return of the “f**ok you” angle in Nike promoting that faucets into its hardcore athlete pedigree.
The Tremendous Bowl marketing campaign is the beginning of a bigger marketing campaign that may run into 2025, all trying to faucet again into Nike’s connection to athletes by utilizing the identical foundations of favor and emotion that constructed the model in many years previous.
“This model wasn’t constructed on Google advertisements or clicks, it was constructed on emotions, and massive, disruptive, irreverent, emotional concepts.” says Graham. “That has been a extremely necessary technique for us, and clearly with our companions at Wieden. How will we guarantee that we’re very a lot athletes over algorithms?”
Greater image
The model will want all of the emotional energy it may possibly get to counter the headwinds it’s been going through. Final summer season, Nike saw its biggest stock drop since 2001. Second-quarter income dipped by 8%. The model is up in opposition to steep competitors throughout main sports activities like operating, due to a resurgent Adidas and Brooks, in addition to newer gamers like On and Hoka. Critics level to a scarcity of innovation, being extra about streetwear Air Jordans and Dunks than efficiency merchandise.
Emarketer senior analyst Zak Stambor says that the model has taken a whole lot of steps to determine its issues and to proper the ship. Getting again to iconic promoting is only a piece of it. “For all of Nike’s challenges, the facility of the model stays extremely robust,” says Stambor. “If the advertising can lean on that core energy, it possible will resonate. Then comes the necessity for every little thing else. You don’t need the advertising to drive the ship, it ought to be following the lead of the innovation, but it surely’s nonetheless a big a part of the puzzle.”
Final 12 months, notably with the arrival of Graham, the model began its mission to get again to the technique co-founder Phil Knight espoused: “First seize the marketplace for onerous core athletes with revolutionary efficiency gear, and the informal client will comply with.”
Graham agrees and describes Nike’s largest energy as a triangle that’s constructed on its athlete partnerships. Distinctive insights result in revolutionary merchandise, that are then talked about via aspirational and provoking methods.
The work seems to be backing that up. Executives stated on a recent earnings call that there are “really transformative” sneakers coming for spring of 2025. Last week, the brand revealed A’ja Wilson’s long-awaited signature shoe, to a lot fanfare.
“We’re getting again to that trifecta,” says Graham. “That’s our profitable playbook, and that’s what you’re going to see from us over and time and again.”
If Nike can’t be iconic, it’s going to push its hardest to be iconic.
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