Days ahead of the Qatar 202 kick-off, Nike launched ‘Footballverse’: an integrated, multi-level campaign fronted by a team of past and present player endorsers which the brand claims reinforces its long-standing belief that the future of sport has infinite potential and shows that ‘each generation makes a unique contribution to the game and inspires future generations to leave their mark’.
Developed in harness with long-time creative agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland and leveraging spiking soccer interest around the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup (which fierce rival Adidas is the official partner), the multi-layered marketing programme spans TV, digital, social, print, OOH, in-store and PR with a links to tournament boot packs, the brand’s new Web 3.0 ‘Swoosh’ initiative, the metaverse and Nike Football’s new FC platform – the brand’s new home for its football community.
Indeed, the wider initiative kicked-off back in September with the launch of the ‘Nike FC’ sports-specific platform with the tagline ‘Football is Never Done’ which linked to the sportswear behemoth’s Qatar 2022 national team jersey launches.
The platform was then followed by the World Cup campaign’s core piece of creative: a classic four-minute and 30-second film which asks a question that football fans have debated forever – how would the legends of the past compare to the stars of today?
The spearhead spot sees an international team of scientists – led by presented by Doctor Rousseau and Professor Machado – working in a secret lab in Switzerland create a code and build a machine to finally settle the debate by holding the ultimate game between footballing generations.
As this experiment of the eras unfolds, stars from Nike’s soccer endorser stable appear one after another: beginning with Kylian Mbappé and Ronaldinho, the pair are joined by Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Edgar Davids, Virgil van Dijk, plus Phil Foden and women’s stars such as Alex Morgan, Sam Kerr, Leah Williamson, Carli Lloyd, (as well as CR JR and Shane Kluivert).
Channeling 1980s Hollywood semi-classic ‘Weird Science’, the spot is set to a reworking of the movie’s soundtrack written by Danny Elfman and performed by Oingo Boingo.
The hero spot was teased from 11 November, before the full 4-minute and 30-second film dropped across Nike channels on 16 November backed by a suite of supporting social content.
Viewers, football supporters and brand fans are encouraged to watch the film and then explore the brand’s Footballverse for themselves by clicking through the Nike FC website, using an online tool to find Nike experiences near you, visiting NIKELAND on Roblox, shopping Nike Football, buying the new Qatar 2022 linkeed ‘Generation Pack’, exploring ‘Mercurial by You’ and getting a game at the brand-backed Rocket League.
Comment
This sets out to be the ultimate ‘retro/future’ entertainment mash-up – mixing football, gaming, animation, movies and music – but it’s all a bit ‘Marvel Meets The Large Hadron Collider Plus Weird Science’ for us.
Does it live up to legendary Nike tournament epics like ‘Airport (1998)’, ‘Secret Tournament/The Cage (2002)’, ‘Write The Future (2010)’ or ‘Risk Everything (2014)’, we’ll let you decide.
The Footballverse launch also came just days after Nike launched a new web3 initiative that allows buyers to swap and share virtual sneakers.
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