A local market, social storytelling campaign from Nike sees the sportswear behemoth showcase little known stories about some of England’s Women’s World Cup stars via a social video series narrated by a rapper.
Each spot, appearing on Instagram Stories, explores one players’ backstory: showcasing where they are from and their path to elite football.
The tribute films, leveraging Nike’s partnership with The FA and the Lionesses, are all narrated by a line up of rappers.
For example, rapper and grime artist Lady Leshurr pays tribute to England captain Steph Houghton (whose soccer story started when she was at school as a four and a half year old tiny tyrant in the windy streets of a mining town), while rapper Little Simz talks about striker Fran Kirby (and her journey from satellite town dreamer to World Cup hero).
This social initiative is the debut Nike campaign from London based agency Uncommon and the spots were directed by George Belfield through Somesuch.
The social campaign runs across the UK during France 2019.
Comment:
An interesting country-specific activation strand aimed at engaging younger fans.
Using social media to build online presence is helping female sports stars break down gender barriers, raise their profile, grow engagement channels and offer attractive and effective marketing tie-ups and the visually-driven simplicity of Instagram sees it currently first among the social channels.
While female footballers don’t quite have the Insta fame and reach of Ronaldo or Messi, the Women’s Football World Cup is a key pillar to double down on female influencer-athlete game: investing in sportswomen via Instagram can bring both brands and athletes when they shine the spotlight on women in sports.
Female athlete influencers are currently a brand’s best friend as they typically offer authenticity, a strong sense of honor and skill, plus role models for a female customer base.
Alex Morgan, arguably the LGBTQ+ positive face of women’s soccer in the USA and known for social authenticity , has nearly six million followers on Instagram, while England skipper Steph Houghton also has a significant Instagram following.
Another notable Nike local market initiative saw it team up with DAZN to create Women’s World Cup curated content for its German platform in an initiative that sees the sportswear giant lean on its sponsored player endorsers for on-demand features.
Including content (such as interviews and features) fronted by no less than nine players from the German squad: all of whom are Nike athlete ambassadors (while the DfB’s official apparel partner is, of course, adidas).
The OTT sports streaming platform has rights to broadcast 26 live matches to subscribers in Germany, has partnered with Nike in a deal that sees the sports apparel outfit secure advertising on DAZN in Germany across the company’s recently revamped advertising suite – the DAZN Dynamics platform.
Other strands of Nike’s World Cup marketing programme include local, country-specific campaigns such as its inventive story in reverse ‘Before That’ campaign in Argentina (see case study), and its US ‘Dream With Us’ (see case study) and Snapchat Shoppable Shirt’ (see case study) initiatives leveraging its USWNT partnership, as well as its epic, global ‘Dream Further’ campaign (see case study).
Links:
Nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+nike
Uncommon
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