Dropped just minutes after winning, sportswear behemoth Nike celebrated the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championship victory with a powerful, blockbuster spot called ‘You Can’t Stop LA’.
Airing moments after the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night to win the 2020 NBA championship, the 60-second film celebrates both the team and the city and features premier Nike athlete ambassador LeBron James and teammate Anthony Davis.
Created in harness with long-time agency Wieden+Kennedy, the ad’s narration references the highs experienced on the court and the lows off of it during the season: including Covid-19, racial injustice and the deaths of basketball icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna.
The spot juxtaposes success and loss over the past season: from Anthony Davis joining the team from the Pelicans last year to start his formidable pairing with LeBron James, through both missteps and losses as well as victories and highlights on the court (including plenty of James’ reverse dunks and three-pointers), to scenes of hardship and challenge including Covid-19 testing, masks and NBA players standing up for Black Live Matter.
A voiceover, set against a soulful piano track, narrates through these highs and lows: “This season, we won. But, we lost. But we won. But we lost so much. Then we won. But we lost. We lost again. But we won! We won again! Then we won again! And because we lost so much, this win, means so much more.”
As the spot states: “In a year unlike anything, this win means everything. #YouCantStopLA”
Outcome:
Within 48 hours of the ad first being posted on 11 October it has notched up 8.7m views on the Nike YouTube channel, plus 17.2m on the sportswear brand’s Twitter feed.
Comment:
The idea here is fairly simple: the Lakers clinching their 17th NBA Championship is one of the few bright spots in a year of extreme upheaval (although not if you are a Miami Heat fan, or a Clippers supporters for that matter).
Nike hopes that by coupling the good and bad it will enhance the beauty of the triumph.
The celebratory campaign is part of Nike’s ongoing ‘You Can’t Stop Sport/Us’ pandemic marketing platform which began in the first half of April during the early days of lockdown (see case study),
evolved in August as US sports began to restart (see case study) and which has also included event and athlete ambassador specific campaigns such as the Williams’ sisters’ ‘You Can’t Stop Sisters’ (see case study).
Another notable achievement in the hours immediately after the Lakers win was the fact that the team became the best-selling merchandise NBA champion team ever – within just 12 hours.
Fanatics said that more Lakers gear was bought overnight than the previous record-holder – the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers – sold in 30 days following their win.
The sales rush offers a contrast to TV viewing figures which saw ratings drop year-on-year throughout the 2020 NBA playoffs. ABC’s broadcast of the series-clinching Game 6 was down 57% from last year’s NBA Finals Game 6 between the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors (although last year’s game was directly up against the NFL’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ juggernaut.
As they emerge from the bubble, which has been reported to have cost the league $180m to stage, NBA officials will be delighted to have reported no positive Covid-19 tests throughout the 172 games played in Orlando.
As a thank you for their tireless commitment in the last four months, Commissioner Adam Silver has given league employees a $1,000 bonus and four Fridays off beginning on 30 October (as well as Thanksgiving week).
Well deserved all round.
Links:
Nike
https://www.nike.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://twitter.com/nike
https://www.facebook.com/nike
Wieden & Kennedy-Portland
https://www.wk.com/about/office/portland/
LA Lakers
https://www.facebook.com/losangeleslakers
https://www.instagram.com/lakers/
https://www.snapchat.com/add/lakerssnaps
https://www.weibo.com/la_lakers?is_all=1
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