A new Nike Football film, ‘The Ball Makes Us More’, celebrates the 20-year partnership between the sportswear behemoth and FC Barcelona by positioning the tie-up as the beating heart and soul of the city.
The spot aims to explore and showcase the club’s legendary culture and how its style of play ‘strikes a chord with and unites soccer supporters around the world’.
The video also states that this passion is also a driving inspiration for long-term members of the team.
“As players, we are conscious of our responsibility to the fans and the city; we do all that we can to bring success to the club, win big titles and make them happy,” says club captain and midfield maestro Andrés Iniesta (who last year signed a contract for life at the club).
Alongside Iniesta, the Nike spot also stars Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, and women’s team Dutch forward Lieke Martens, alongside some of biggest Barca names past and present including: Piqué, Busquets, Roberto, Dembélé, Umtiti, Suárez, Paulinho, Putellas, Puyol, Ronaldinho, Guardiola and Cruyff.
Alongside the players, countless Catalan fans appear in the spot and also helped to make the film.
The film was directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister (who won an Oscar for Inception) and also features Barca born actor Carles Francino, skateboarder Pedro Attenborough, renowned BMX rider Malcom de Blas, plus 78-year-old Carles Tarrida (one of the 20 extras who are all real supporters) who attended the first-ever match at the Nou Camp on 24 September, 1957.
The music is an original score performed by traditional Catalan percussionists Kaboom and features Barcelona native and Latino Grammy nominee Rosalía.
The campaign isn’t only limited to football, but also touches upon the city’s historic contributions to art and architecture and the creative’s visual, grid style was inspired by the city’s layout (designed and built in the mid-19th century by urban planner Ildefons Cerdà).
The flagship film runs across both Barcelona’s,
#TheBallMakesUsMore
For us the ball means everything. When we have it our city lights up and when we don’t, we have 6 seconds to get it back.
pic.twitter.com/XlpTFuec0i— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 12, 2018
and Nike’s digital and social channels.
Comment:
Since its 12 March debut, the spot has notched up 500k views on Instagram and 205k on YouTube across Nike Football platforms, plus an additional 235k on Facebook, 117k YouTube and 115k Twitter views on Barcelona’s video channels.
Not bad numbers, but, to be honest, we’d have thought that the combined reach of Barcelona and Nike’s social channels would ensure the film would have generated more views.
This campaign celebrates the 20th anniversary of the partnership between kit supplier Nike and FC Barcelona.
Indeed, there is something of a trend in football marketing for clubs and partners to celebrate significant anniversaries and major historical milestones.
Other recent notable examples include campaigns from BetVictor and Liverpool celebrating the team’s 125th anniversary (see case study) and from New Balance and Celtic celebrating the Lisbon Lions European Cup winning side (see case study).
Links:
Nike
https://www.youtube.com/user/NikeFootball/videos
https://www.instagram.com/nikefootball/
https://www.facebook.com/nikefootball
FC Barcelona
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c…
http://www.facebook.com/fcbarcelona
http://twitter.com/FCBarcelona
http://plus.google.com/+FCBarcelona
http://chats.viber.com/fcbarcelona
