A 2014 cricket campaign in India from Nike, called ‘Make Every Yard Count’ invited young players from across the country to celebrate their passion for the game by taking and sharing selfies of where and how they play.
The initiative was a response to a brief that posed the challenge that while cricket is India’s national sport, not everyone in India perceives Nike as a brand associated with cricket.
Agences JWT India and Wunderman Thompson were inspired by a vision of all the fields, grounds, alleyways, nooks and crannies turned into cricket pitches by India’s cricket-mad kids.
The insight was that in a country of a billion people, young cricketers in India never looks at a lack of space as a problem – but rather as an opportunity.
An opportunity to hit the ground harder, to run faster, to jump higher and stand taller.
The idea was to try and harness this youthful inventiveness in order to celebrate both the fans, players and Nike’s mutual love for the game?
The ‘Make Every Yard Count’ campaign invited young cricket players – via Facebook, Twitter and the World Wide Web – to take selfies showing where and how they play cricket.
These image then became part of a film that highlighted the lengths cricket crazy children will go to play the game.
The sportswear brand and its marketing team received photos of kids playing on streets, beaches, playgrounds and dirt fields and even among cows.
To reinforce the source material, Nike and WT also sent around 100 photographers to different cricket fields across India and invited young players to participate in events in every corner of the country.
The resulting spearhead spot was designed to a celebration of the love of the game and the realization that kids will play it anywhere they can.
‘Make Every Yard Count’ debuted on social media and then aired live on TV and in cinemas during a match between India and Australia during the T20 World Cup
The spot featured 1440 such young cricketers with 2,25,000 crowd sourced moments from thousands of grounds across India.
Each frame of the film depicts that one moment, where the cricket crazy youth of India has just one goal, to make every yard count.
Even the soundtrack was created from kids’ shouts and chants during play
Senthil Kumar, National Creative Director, JWT India, said that Nike always inspires everyone to do better than what they do, be it on the playground or anywhere else. It even applies to the creative team which handled its branding. “It always inspires us to reach for the gold”.
Comment:
Immediately after launch, the Nike film began trending across global media and reached nearly every cricket-crazy kid in India.
It produced 225,000 photos of 1440 kids from 108 photographers and won no less than seven awards at Cannes Lions.
Links
Nike India
https://www.youtube.com/user/nikeindia
https://twitter.com/nikeindia1
https://www.instagram.com/nikesportswear
JWT India
Wunderman Thompson
