The sportswear behemoth challenges Instagram users to see if they can keep up with the professionals during COVID-19 lockdown with home fitness campaign called the ‘Nike Living Room Cup’.
Each week, athletes from Nike’s huge endorser stable are posting their own personal weekly home workouts on Instagram and challenging fans an everyday fitness fanatics to see if they can match or better the elite athlete’s routine.
The initiative aims to both help keep people fit and keep them engaged with the brand during the coronavirus lockdown.
Football super star Cristiano Ronaldo kicked off the ‘Living Room Cup on 5 April when he posted an Instagram video of himself at home completing 142 ‘core crusher’ sit ups in 45 seconds and then the Juventus forward challenged Instagram users to beat him.
The challenges keep coming.
In week two of the initiative, female fencing star Bebe Vio’s video saw her complete 20 ‘full-body finisher’ exercises in 45 seconds and then told viewers to show her what they’ve got.
As part of the campaign, Nike invites Instagramers to upload their own personal video responses to the endorser challenges using the #livingroomcup and #playinside hashtags.
Comment:
The Living Room Cup is one strand of Nike’s rounded and multi-strand Covid-19 response programme.
It kicked off soon after Nike and agency Wieden+Kennedy launched its ‘Play For The World’ ad campaign which called on sport enthusiasts and brand fans to ‘play inside, play for the world’ to help slow the spread of the virus.
The Portland based brand then expanded this campaign with a 60-second ‘You Can’t Stop Us’ online spot which opens with empty stadiums and ballparks and goes on to feature sports stars such as LeBron James, Ramla Ali and Sara Hughes alongside everyday amateur athletes and fitness enthusiasts all coming up with innovative and committed ways to stay fit and healthy at home.
A further, kids-focused fitness initiative from Nike is the UK’s ‘Move Crew’ health missions run in partnership with non-profit ukactive.
To further support people to stay active during lockdown, the company also made many of its Nike Training Club premium subscription video workoutsfree to access in the US and it is also offering free, live-streamed workouts on its Youtube channel.
Plus, early in April, Nike committed more than $17m to Covid-19 response efforts around the world.
On the manufacturing side, the company is also transforming materials and parts originally destined for shoes and apparel (including Nike Air soles) into personal protective equipment like face shields and air-purifying respirator lenses.
Outcome:
At the time of writing, the dedicated Living Room Cup Instagram account had only 2,131 followers and 59 total posts two weeks after its 7 April launch.
To put that into perspective, Nike’s central Instagram account has 107 million followers.
Comment:
Nike’s work through the crisis has received plenty of praise and its creative has been largely well received.
Perhaps because the company is sticking to things that are relevant to its core purpose and to the sports and inspiration space – its natural home turf.
It has largely avoided gimmicky and over-stylised stunts which speak more to creative accolades than brand relevance.
We like the idea that whilst you can’t actually play against Ronaldo on the football pitch, or any of the other participating Nike athlete ambassadors, you can take them on directly in the fitness challenge.
This brings consumers closer to their favourite players and the leading lights of their passion points.
The use of endorsers also enables the brand to leverage the personal social reach of its endorsers’ own platforms, rather than just relying on the brand’s channel reach.
Of course, COVID-19 has led to an at-home pandemic fitness activation boom as brands from Adidas and Nike, to Reebok, Intersport, Head and Aldi all seek to meet the needs of the public during lockdown.
Indeed, during the first two weeks of lockdown in the UK, an Institute for Employment Studies survey showed that 60% of people in the country said that the restrictions meant they were exercising less than usual and were seeking practical ways of staying active at home.
YouTube report searches for home-exercise videos increased 200% in the UK in March (compared to the averages for January and February),while ‘Body Coach turned national PE teacher Joe Wicks broke a Guinness World Record late last month when 955,158 people tuned into his live workout session on YouTube.
Nike itself benefited from its own learnings around this trend when during China’s coronavirus shutdown activity on its personal training apps rose 80%.
These are helpful, practical utilities which meet a need, keep people engaged with the brand at a time when sport is shut down and there is less Nike sponsorship around and also keeps them connected to their favourite sports stars and passion points.
The strategy is based around practical purpose, plus inspiration and ideation with a focus on engagement and earned media rather than advertising and the direct sales funnel.
Links:
Nike
https://www.nike.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://twitter.com/nike
https://www.facebook.com/nike
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