Nike has released two new Olympic-themed spots within its ongoing, athlete-ambassador led ‘Unlimited’ campaign: ‘Courage’ (featuring transgender Olympian Chris Mosier) and ‘Together’ (starring Chance the rapper).
Seemingly markedly different subject matters, both commercials align neatly under the sportswear behemoth’s long-running inspirational ‘Unlimited’ initiative.
In ‘Unlimited Courage’ duathlete Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to compete as part of the USA’s Men’s Olympic team replies to the type of questions asked by those who know very little about what being transgender actually means:
‘How did you know you were fast enough to compete with men?’
‘How did you know you were strong enough?’
‘How did you know they’d accept you?’
And each time his reply is the same: ‘I didn’t’
This spot cuts trough partly because it isn’t an overwrought story of stress and struggle alongside a swelling string-led orchestral score, but is a touch jaunty and even light-hearted in its approach.
The other spot in the series, released around 10 August, is ‘Unlimited Together’ and actually activates around the USA Men’s and Women’s National Basketball teams (without specific Team USA rights, but with plenty of Nike sports star endorsers).
A more sombre, black-and-white piece of creative in the form of an all-new spoken/sung/rapped minor-key piano ballad from Chicago-born rapper Chance.
Whilst it does include an image of the star and stripes, it actually talks a less traditionally Americana-style approach to US patriotism.
America—playground basketball courts, southern porches, city streets—peppered throughout, offering a different take on the patriotism than the Olympics offers, but one that feels very legitimate.
These individual ‘Unlimited’ commercials have been rolling out globally on broadcast television and across a variety of digital channels and social platforms since July’s Serena Williams and Mo Farah ads (see case study), then culminating in the immediately eve of Rio games hero ‘Unlimited Future’ commercial (see case study), and the in-Games ‘Unlimited You’ work that switched the focus to the consumer/watcher rather than the famous athlete endorsers (see case study).
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Thus far both ‘Courage’ and ‘Together’ have racked up around 3m YouTube views each – a mightily impressive number (especially considering that there are 10s and 10s of spots in Nike’s Unlimited Series).
Before and during the Olympics, it seems marketers promoting all types of brands and businesses are agreed that one route to sure-fire sports star sponsor success is to produce inspirational spots revolving around athlete stories of commitment.
How many pieces of creative have we sat through featuring athletes overcoming hardship, pushing their bodies to the limits and striving for greatness against the odds?
Some, like Under Armour’s darkly striking Michael Phelps film (see case study) have been spectacularly successful both in terms of engagement metrics and winning awards.
Whilst others have just passed us by in the athlete-led advertising avalanche.
Yet several of the spots in Nike’s ‘Unlimited’ series truly stand out and these are two such examples.
Not least because they feel legitimate and don’t overplay their hand.
They might take a similar creative and tactical approach to other work, but they are so finely crafted and their stories so inspirational and emotional that they can be hard to ignore.
The Mosier spot also, albeit subtly, continues the current trend for sports sponsors and advertisers to take on heavy hitting social-cultural issues – an approach we have seen that spans Guinness’ ‘Never Alone’ campaign that included tackling homosexuality via a ‘Gareth Thomas’ and racial prejudice via an ‘Ashwin Willemse ‘ spot at last year’s Rugby World Cup (see case study), to some truly brilliant Paralympic work around Rio 2016 like the organising committee’s ‘MindChanger Workout’ (see case study) and Channel 4’s ‘We’re The Super Humans’ (see case study).
Links
Nike Web:
Nike YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
Nike Twitter:
Nike Facebook:
Nike Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
Nike Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/+nike/videos
Nike ‘Go Nike’ Web:
http://gonike.me/justdoit.
Wieden & Kennedy, Portland:
