‘Champions Aren’t Born, They’re Made!’ is one of several rousing line in Bobby Cannavale’s baby nursery, pre Olympic pep talk which forms the core of Nike’s first flagship Rio 2016 ambush ad ‘Unlimited Future’.
Taking the sports locker room motivational speech onto a hospitality baby ward, the recipients of baby-me versions of some of Nike most famous endorsers.
The commercial features baby versions of famous Nike athlete ambassadors about to compete at the Olympic Games: including Serena Williams, LeBron James, Neymar Jr, Mo Farah and Zhou Qi.
The little kids lie in their cots while sharp suited actor Bobby Cannavale tells them that life is messed up, that they don’t choose where they are born or their names, but that they do get a say in their future.
Released globally two weeks ahead of the Summer Games, the spot was helmed by independent film director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) and developed in harness with regular Nike agency Wieden & Kennedy, Portland.
The W+K team working for Nike’s Senior director global brand communication Ean Lensch included global creative directors Alberto Ponte and Ryan O’Rourke, copywriter Josh Bogdan and art director Pedro Izique.
The spot is amplified socially
Champions aren't born. They're made. #justdoit
Begin your story here: https://t.co/4SuOIuArFWhttps://t.co/ZAPG8PqPfG
— Nike (@Nike) July 25, 2016
while the wider ‘Unlimited’ campaign continues at the brand’s digital hub where it explores the determination and struggle on the road to greatness with athlete specific films hosted at http://news.nike.com/just-do-it-2016
Comment
Like most of Nike sports spots this is certainly inspirational, but the cuteness and humour reflects a slightly different approach from the sports behemoth’s usual ad approach.
Yet it follows the usual, tried and tested Nike sports event ambush strategy: fronting stunning films with property relevant Nike athlete endorsers.
And Nike (with long-time agency W+K) sure know how to make stylish guerrilla spots.
They succeeded at Euro 2016 with Ronaldo fronted ‘The Switch’ (see case study) and they are succeeding here with this Rio 2016 ambush.
After all, with 20,737,123 YouTube views (and 18.5k thumbs up), plus 3.8k retweets and 5.8k likes on Twitter and 6.6k likes and 4.7k shares on Facebook in its first 24 hours, this spot is certainly gaining the usual Nike traction.
Albeit with a more direct Olympic connection, it continues the brand’s ongoing ‘Unlimited’ concept which has already included athlete-specific strands including a post Wimbledon win Serena Williams spot (see case study) and creative focusing on Allyson Felix,
focusing on Allyson Felix,
Mo Farah,
Ashton Eaton,
and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Links
Nike Web:
Nike YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
Nike Twitter:
Nike Facebook:
Nike Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
Nike Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/+nike/videos
Wieden & Kennedy, Portland:
