The day before Euro 2016 kicks-off, Nike leverages football fever and uses player endorsements to ambush official tournament partner Adidas with the launch of its #SparkBrilliance initiative led by a body swap short film called ‘The Switch’ and a mental training footie app called Pro Genius.
At the core of the new campaign is a six-minute short film starring Portugal captain and Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and also featuring 16 other Nike ambassadors including Raheem Sterling, Joe Hart, Harry Kane, Chris Smalling, John Stones and Ross Barkley.
Driving the sportswear giant’s ongoing #SparkBrilliance initiative, The Switch spot blends stunning soccer skills with Nike’s version of the body swap movie (think ‘Freaky Friday’ and ‘Big’) and sees Ronaldo (CR7) switch bodies with a young English ball boy.
As they get to grips with their new bodies and their new/lack of football skills, the film follows the two until their worlds collide when they face off on the pitch.
At the heart of the campaign is the idea that ‘one moment can change everything’.
The initiative was initially teased for four days via three assets – Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 – across social channels such as Twitter, before the sportswear behemoth posted its spearhead film to fully launch the campaign on 9 June – one day before the tournament kicks off..
The video, at 5 minutes and 57 seconds, is the longest brand film Nike Football has ever shot.
Directed by Ringen Ledwidge in collaboration with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, the spot was also the most expansive brand shoot Ronaldo has ever done; with the star performing soccer stunts through a full five days of filming.
The central commercial was supported across the usual Nike digital and social channels from Twitter to Facebook.
24 hours after dropping the spearhead short film, Nike extended the campaign by leveraging the reach and power of Snapchat with a special filter that lets fans merge their faces with Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘The Switch’ spot features the tagline ‘Spark Brilliance’ as it aims to show football fans how just one moment of magic can change everything and so, building on this theme, the Oregon based sports apparel giant linked with Snapchat to let supporters do their very own ‘swap’ with Ronaldo.
Other elements of Nike’s tournament activation range from leveraging Ronaldo’s 42.9m Twitter followers,
The game starts tomorrow. Mental preparation starts now. Train your brain with Pro Genius:… https://t.co/P7JeV1q7Vi
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) June 13, 2016
and releasing its updated own-brand Nike Football app (complete with new Pro Genuis brain training and promoted with another video fronted by Ronaldo)
The app offers an array of physical, tactical and technical mental exercises and drills, developed with the help of digital agency AKQA, for those young players looking to hone their skills.
Nike has also opened a major new branded space in Paris, dubbed the Palais of Speed, with exhibits and videos built around the sportswear giant’s key player endorsers.
Comment:
The Snapchat strand once again suggests that in the sports sponsorship and marketing arena this is the year of Snapchat as more and more marketers invest in the platform and use the messaging app as a key part of their campaigns.
Yet, the core of the campaign remains the showpiece ‘The Switch’ spot – which is less of an advert and more a stylishly successful six-minute short film.
After all, the digital data from the first day of the campaign seems to suggest that the fans and consumers agree.
With 10m YouTube views, 40,000 Facebook likes, loves and wows and 15,000 shares, plus 8,500 retweets and 7,500 Twitter likes in its first 24 hours, this football film continues in Nike’s impressive portfolio of major tournament spots that includes classic such as ‘Write The Future’
and ‘The Last Game’.
Links:
Nike Football YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPdZ9…
Nike Football Twitter:
https://twitter.com/nikefootball
Nike Football Web:
http://nike.com/football
http://nike.com/soccer
Nike Football App:
Android: http://gonike.me/NFApp_GPlay
iOS: http://gonike.me/NFApp_iTunes
Nike Palais Of Speed:
https://www.palaisofspeed.com/
