Nike has launched a new long-form content series on YouTube to engage millennial (Gen Y) women.
The eight-part series stars a likeable slacker named Margot and her fitness vlogger friend Lily and revolves around a bet between them which sees Margot making fitness videos and Lily making friends.
Episode 1, ‘Margot vs Lily’, rolled out in January on YouTube and starts with the New Year’s Eve bet.
It is also being amplified across other Nike social platforms – such as Twitter.
2 sisters. 1 bet. #nikewomen presents Margot vs Lily, an original show series. #betterforit https://t.co/Ev6gnP6NHfhttps://t.co/Qn1RU03Yw3
— Nike Women (@nikewomen) January 25, 2016
The series is part of Nike’s current female focused ‘Better For It’ campaign, the series sits on the women’s initiative’s digital hub at http://www.nike.com/betterforit where consumers can not only catch each new episode, but also shop Margot and Lily’s looks, download their latest workouts and get ‘the advice you need to get #betterforit’.
It has been created by long-time Nike agency Wieden & Kennedy Portland with episodes directed by Tricia Brock and produced by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and a screenplay by Jesse Andrews.
Nike’s ‘Better For It’ initiative (see case study) was first launched with a one minute spot back in April 2015.
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Under Armour’s recent success, partly built on its ‘womanfiesto’ and its ‘Will Beats Noise’ repositioning (which included blockbuster campaigns from stars such as Misty Copeland and Gisele Bundschen) has forced rivals (like Nike and Adidas to alter their own approach to the female sportswear market).
And this web series continues this change.
Positioned as an original YouTube series appealing to young female consumers, this tactic sees Nike tap into the twin trends of ‘fitness selfies’ and ‘YouTube celebs’ in the form of a new content marketing venture
The move is yet another illustration of the growing power of branded content and of longer form film.
According to Cisco, in 2015 an impressive 66% of all web traffic was video and the tech-giant predicts that figure will rise to 80% by 2019.
This dovetails with a similar 85% growth in longer online video formats.
There is a general trend for longer form, brand storytelling and the sports and sponsorship space at the forefront of this change.
Links
Nike Women YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NikeWomen
Nike Women Twitter:
Nike Women Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nikewomen
Nike Women Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/nikewomen/
Nike Women Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nikewomen/
Nike Women Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/104874058666553933447
Wieden & Kennedy Portland
