Mid June sees Nike Australia team up with a set of athlete ambassadors to launch a new brand campaign revolving around ‘No Turning Back’ moments in sport.
Developed in harness with long-term creative agency partner Wieden+Kennedy (Portland), the initiative is a call to arms to reawaken young Aussies and inspire them to celebrate the creative joy of sport and to play like there’s nothing to lose.
Nike’s first local market specific work in a decade, the campaign is fronted by a set of star Australian athletes from Nike’s endorser stable and these icons aim to inspire young Australians to release their inner competitive spirit.
The group of Australian athletes – which includes tennis pro Nick Kyrgios, athlete Genevieve LaCaze, NRL players James Tedesco and Cameron Smith and soccer player Tom Rogic – are drawn from different sports and various codes to reflect differing aspects of competitive sporting ‘passion and joy’.
The integrated, multi-platform and multi-phase campaign is spearheaded by a set of four new TVC spots: each of these hero commercial features an athlete ambassador in an unusual ‘No Turning Back’ situation.
The first ads debut on 21 June during the iconic Australian sporting institution that is the NRL’s ‘State of Origin’ game on Channel Nine.
One of the first pair of spots, ‘Muserum’, sees NRL star James Tedesco deliberately touch a priceless work of art in order to ensure his only way out of the gallery is to dodge and weave his way past the security guards.
This cheeky video sees Tedesco, who will play for New South Wales in the State Of Origin game, place himself in a position that puts him under pressure and means ‘there is no turning back’ from the challenge.
The second of the debut ads, ‘Cliff’, sees athlete Genevieve LaCaze drive out of Sydney into the outback, then push her car off a cliff in order to force herself to run back to the city.
The final two TV ads in the series – one of which sees a young girl handcuffs herself to LaCaze in order to keep the pace in a race – will roll out over the coming weeks.
The spots, which were shot in Australia, are being amplified across the sportswear brand’s usual Australian market digital and social platforms – including Twitter.
A normal person sees a museum. James Tedesco sees an opportunity. #JustDoIt @jamestedesco93 pic.twitter.com/cNmN7TJodQ
— Nike Australia (@nikeaustralia) June 21, 2017
Running is easy when you don’t give yourself a choice. #JustDoIt pic.twitter.com/q8BF4AUWpo
— Nike Australia (@nikeaustralia) June 21, 2017
Additional digital elements have been developed to create a two-way dialogue with consumers and to encourage viewers to socially share their own ‘no turning back’ moments.
In addition to the TV and social work, the campaign spans outdoor, experiential events, digital, as well as in-store and PR strands.
The OOH strand includes large-scale poster sites across Australia: including the high profile Glebe Sydney silos.
It also included a projection onto the side of the MCG in Melbourne when the Australian football team played Brazil last week.
The brand is using these key outdoor sites to spark mass market, mainstream conversation.
Plus, to mark the campaign launch, Nike Australia hosted a panel debate fronted by Fox Sports news presenter Louise Ransome and featuring some of Australia’s highest profile sports stars and personalities (such as Andrew Johns, Steve Moneghetti, AFL star Nic Naitanui, footballer Kyah Simon, netballer Kim Ravaillion and skater Hayley Wilson) who discussed how best to get Australia inspired to compete and shared their own ‘No Turning Back’ stories.
According to the brand, this campaign was two years in the making and its origins lie in a Nike research and insights project that explored the relationship Australian youth has with sport.
The research was carried out by the brand and 50 Australian sporting industry experts, professional and amateur athletes and youngsters and revolved around the pressures Australian children experience in sport.
According to Nike Australia marketing director Brant Hirst, this project came up with some surprising findings around negative associations with competition in sports (something Australia is not typically/usually known for).
So Nike wanted its next promotional initiative to address that, to ‘change their current perceptions of sport’, to ‘focus on getting young people back into sports’ and ‘inspire them to play like they have nothing to lose’ and ‘reawaken their love for competing’.
“The research was pretty telling. We discovered some things about our consumers’ relationship with sport that really surprised us,’ explains Hirst.
‘The biggest thing was that young people were starting to feel an unhealthy pressure about winning and performance, not the old love of competition and spirit of sport that Aussies have always embraced. When we thought about what that might do to enjoyment and participation in sport in Australia, we felt we could take a leadership position to bring some of that healthy passion and joy back.’
Hirst claims that this locally-driven project, which is the end point of a personal and professional passion, is a long term play for the brand.
“The heritage of sport in Australia is something we’ve been really proud of, and we wanted to make sure that when there was the right moment in time, that we could take a leadership position around Australians and sport. ‘No Turning Back’ is a call to action for the young of Australia. We’re saying ’embrace that pressure’. Do what athletes before you have done, choose to go forward regardless.”
While no official investment figures have been released by Nike, this initiative marks its biggest Australian marketing expenditure in a long time and its first major local push in a decade.
“We’re always looking for the best balance of [global and local] work that means something, but this is 100% Australian work, from insight, through strategy and into production,” adds Hirst.
“Historically, competition was always just as important as winning. It’s what made Australia the most successful underdog-sporting nation. Nike’s ‘No Turning Back’ campaign was developed to awaken the naturally competitive spirit that lies at the heart of every Australian young athlete and inspire them to play like they have nothing to lose.”
The campaign was created for Nike Australia’s marketing director Brant Hirst and brand communications manager Alex Tjioe by a Wieden+Kennedy (Portland) team led by creative directors Alberto Ponte and Ryan O’Rourke and included Sara Philips, Alex Romans, David Chathas, Irina Tone, Barrie Wilhelmi, Simone Takasaki, Lisa Johnson, Ryan Craven, Luiza Prata Carvalho & Patrick Gulliford
The ads were directed by Steve Ayson and the media agency was Mindshare.
Activative Comment:
As ever with Nike and W+K, ‘No Turning Back’ smartly embraces the sportswear behemoth’s long term ‘Just Do It’ attitude and captures the brand’s classic irreverent and bold tone.
Nike’s investment in TV commercials during the high profile, big audience and pricy State of Origin game marks a significant media investment in free-to-air television – something new for Nike in the Australian market.
The success of the strategy will be determined by measure the campaign’s impact in three principle areas: brand uplift, engagement with staff and customers, and commercial performance.
Links:
Nike Australia
https://www.youtube.com/user/nikeaustralia
https://twitter.com/nikeaustralia
Wieden+Kennedy, Portland
http://www.wk.com/work/from/portland
