On the day of the FIFA World Cup Final itself, Nike leveraged football fever in China with a ‘Dare To Become’ campaign that dares China to become a future football power.
The campaign, which was developed in harness with creative agency Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, sees Nike Football aim to inspire China’s young footballers with a dream as the spearhead spot imagines a future when China is a true football superpower and its players bestride the world stage.
With the objective of leveraging swelling Chinese public interest in the tournament and the sport, the lead commercial opens at the imagined ‘2033 World Cup’ and starts with a Chinese player scoring a brilliant goal.
This lays the groundwork for a narrative in which most of the world’s greatest football players are Chinese.
Manchester City’s squad is filled with Chinese players and the governing body is forced to put quotas on how many Chinese players are allowed in Premier League teams.
Indeed, the spot even pokes a little fun t England and depicts it as a nation in tears after drawing China in the same World Cup Group.
The spot generates additional authenticity by featuring genuine teen footballers from the Nike Football League in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The campaign aims to inspire young Chinese sports stars and football fans by offering a vision of what Chinese football could be in the future.
“We saw this campaign as an opportunity to make a statement and start a conversation about football in China. Why can’t China be great?” explains Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai creative directors Matt Skibiak and Dong Hao.
“This film is clearly on the side of the athletes who believe it can be. Because if no one is willing to imagine going there in their heads, they’ll never get there in real life.”
Comment:
The early signs are that Nike is achieving its objective as the spot has notched up 170m views in its first 48 hours.
This is a fun, future facing and an ambitious campaign that adds to the excitement and debate about the future of football in China.
The initiative also serves as a n indirect rallying cry to rival and official FIFA partner Adidas, which itself has poured in some heavy investment in pushing football in China.
In fact, Adidas has set up a partnership with the Chinese Government to organise grassroots football programs across the country to help develop and improve the sport across the nation).
A smart move as, despite its national side not qualifying for the tournament, World Cup fever has gripped China through the summer of 2018.
This has been further supported by a slew of new Chinese based FIFA sponsor brands: including the likes of Mengniu, Vivo and Wanda.
Plus, consider the recent words of President Xi Jinping who recently vowed to turn China into a “soccer superpower” that will host, qualify for and win the World Cup by 2050.
Iff that happens, then this campaign shows that Nike is trying to make sure it is in a position to get some off the related financial football action.
Links:
Nike China
https://www.nike.com/cn/zh_cn/
https://www.facebook.com/nike/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai
http://www.wk.com/office/shanghai
