July 2014 saw the retirement of New Yankees captain and genuine baseball legend Derek Jeter and in one of the stand out spoprts campaigns of the year, one that cut through the tidal wave of marketing marking his final game, was Nike’s ‘Re2pect’ tribute.
(The ‘2’ represents Jeter’s New York Yankees shirt number).
Running with the copy line ‘No matter what hat you wear, tip it to The Captain’, #RE2PECT was an integrated initiative created by Wieden+Kennedy New York (and Arts & Sciences Los Angeles) and featuring members of the public and a veritable who’s who of Nike endorsers all tipping their caps as a mark of respect to Jeter and his stellar career.
Sports ambassadors from Tiger Woods to Michael Jordan (even Jon Lester – a star pitcher for fierce rivals the Boston Red Sox), to Billy Crystal, Jay-Z, New York’s major and its police department all star in the epic 90-second commercial that spearheads the campaign
The spot made its on-air debut during Fox’s broadcast of the MLB All-Star Game.
The TV commercial aimed to also kick-start a trend across the USA for showing respect for Jeter through hat-tipping – an act that spread like wildfire across the country’s ballparks and sports stadiums.
The hat-tipping idea emerged from Jeter’s own batter’s box routine.
Not only did the hashtag #Re2pect trend on Facebook and Twitter, but fans were tipping their hats in ballparks across the country.
The campaign was further supported by outdoor work (led by giant billboards in New York), print ads and digital and social assets too.
WATCH: Nike's new 'Re2pect' Derek Jeter tribute commercial features some unlikely fans http://t.co/RTVcPnp3M6 pic.twitter.com/DBpK3tTqxZ
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 14, 2014
And, as is now becoming common with Nike ambassador retirement campaigns, the sports brand even filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for ‘RE2PECT’ so it could produce a special, limited edition range of hats, caps, shirts and t-shirts with the slogan.
Comment
‘Respect’ is a fitting title and theme for Derek Jeter’ss retirement – as that is genuinely what the New York Yankee was all about.
This campaign won both the Integrated Grand Prix and a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2015 – demonstrating its creativity, inventiveness and effectiveness
Indeed, according to the jury, this was not simply a campaign that ticked off content across a checklist of different channels, this initiative genuinely used a mix of channels to create cultural impact at scale.
Each content piece of media for each platform amplified the idea in a relevant way to create an umbrella cultural moment.
But it still wasn’t our personal favourite Jeter farewell commercial – that was Gatorade’s
Links
Nike Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Nike?lang=en-gb
Nike Jeter ‘Re2pect’ Collection:
http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pw/jordan-derek-jeter/9a6Zofq
Nike YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
Wieden + Kennedy in New York:
http://www.wk.com/office/newyork
