Nike, in harness with long-time agency of record W+K, offered its own tribute to its former athlete ambassador with a simple, touching text-only social video.
The two minute spot, called ‘Mamba Forever’ (in reference to Bryant’s nickname which reflected his on court attitude), consists of a simple black screen with white text on the right side.
The typed copy changes to fit the accompanying audio of Bryant’s life and career, but the last word, ‘Forever’, remains throughout the video as the words in front of it change with the audio.
The film spans Bryant’s life: from his high school years in Philadelphia, through his two-decade NBA career (including his championships, MVP titles and scoring records), to his role as a father and husband.
At the end of the spot, the word ‘Forever’ is shown and with a Laker-yellow ‘Mamba’.
The spot, which was launched to coincide with Bryant’s funeral on 24 February, is supported on Nike’s website where the front page stated: “‘Mamba Forever’ pays tribute to beloved member of the Nike family, Kobe Bryant. One of the greatest athletes of his generation, Bryant had an immeasurable impact on the world of sport and the community of basketball.”
The campaign was created for Nike by regular agency W+K Portland where the team included Executive Creative Directors Jason Bagley and Eric Baldwin, Creative Directors Alberto Ponte and Ryan O’Rourke, Copywriters/Art Directors Guilherme Souza and Emma Barnett, plus Head of Production Matt Hunnicutt, Executive Producer Jake Grand, Producer Antonio Burnett, Director of Business Affairs Amber Lavender, Business Affairs Managers Laura Caldwell and Maggie Harasyn.
The account team included Group Brand Director Andre Gustavo, Brand Director Erik Wade, Brand Executive Jon Vaughan, with Media Director Reme DeBisschop, Communications Planning Supervisors Ryan Craven and Kallie Tenzeldam.
The design studio group was led by Design Ops Manager/Design Producer Alicia Kuna and Studio Designer Mitch Wilson with editorial handled by Joint Editorial with Editor Steve Sprinkel, Assistant Editor Kevin Alfoldy, Post Executive Producer Jen Milano, plus VFX by Joint, with Flame Kevin Alfoldy, VFX Executive Producer Bugs Russell, VFX Producer Annie Rosick.
The music was the Hammock track ‘Mysterium’ with sound design and mix also from Joint where the team was led by Sound Designer Noah Woodburn.
Comment:
The Kobe tributes from players, the league, fans, friends and brands have come thick and fast in the last month – from the NBA at the All-Star Game, Michael Jordan’s speech at the funeral
to Dr Dre’s video/track tribute for Beats By Dre,
but few are as simplistically powerful as this Nike spot.
Nike and agency W+K are masters of the plain background/simple copy ad approach as illustrated by Nike Running’s 2016 text-only spots (see case study) and also masters of marketing around Kobe Bryant himself as shown by its #MambaDay retirement campaign from 2016 (see case study).
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
Wieden+Kennedy
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