A day ahead of the Rio 2016 opening ceremony, Nike rolled out the latest phase in its ongoing Olympic ‘Unlimited’ ambush with a new spot depicting everyday athletes as well as sports stars achieving incredible goals.
The commercial, called ‘Unlimited You’, focuses the attention on the consumer everyman rather than Nike’s stable of star sports endorsers.
While it also features endorsers like Kevin Durant, Serena Williams, Giancaarlo Stanton, Nyjah Huston and Neymar Jr, it is the so called ‘Average Joes’ who inspire through stunning sporting achievements and push the limits of possible.
It’s just as much about amateur marathons and youngsters’ personal bests as Olympic medals.
Narrated by ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ actor Oscar Isaac and at mid point in the ad Isaac’s voiceover begs them to stop and exclaims ‘everybody is going way to far’, but, of course, there is no stopping these youngsters.
The voiceover at the campaign climax closes with: ‘When everyone pushes their limit they reach their maximum potential and live happily ever after!’
‘Unlimited You’ was developed by regular Nike agency Wieden+Kennedy and yet shot in their own unique creative style by Daniels (the working name of the director partnership between Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – best known for indie movie ‘Swiss Army Man’).
Despite having to jump through all the usual strict Nike approval hoops, the directors and W+K fought hard to retain as much creative control as possible – considering this was a Nike project.
‘The spot is about athletes pushing their limits more than they thought they could, and then doing more and more and more,’ says Wieden & Kennedy Copywriter Edward Harrison.
‘It made sense to us that as the athletes did more and more, that things would get crazier and more frantic to match.’
While the Daniels themselves report that it was actually the logistical issues that were the biggest challenge in making a spot involving more than 20 locations, 70 characters and roughly 500 extras.
‘We tried to be really upfront with all those changes and make sure everyone was excited about how far we could push things and how playful it could be for a Nike spot,’ explains Kwan.
‘We like working with non-actors, but athletes are a very special genre of non-actor,” Scheinert adds.
The ‘Unlimited You’ phase follows the previous ‘Unlimited Future’ spot that saw US actor Bobby Cannavale address and inspire a nursery full of ‘famous’ babies (see case study).
Which itself followed on from a lengthy series of individual athlete ‘Unlimited’ spots: each focusing on a specific Nike athlete ambassador – like Serena William (see case study) and Mo Farah
and many more.
Comment
With 23.1m YouTube views in just one week, it seems Nike’s Unlimited Olympic athlete ambassador ambush is gaining good traction.
More iterations and further phases of Unlimited are expected to roll out through August.
Nike’s definition of ‘unlimited’ means being and doing without limits and when it comes to athletes it means endless possibility.
The idea is that Nike and Nike customers never define themselves by what came before, but by defying one’s own expectations.
There is never ‘too far’, only ‘what’s next?’
‘The end is really just the beginning for someone who’s looking to go beyond their limits, and that’s what that shattering logo represents,’ explains Nike Global Corporate Communications Director Brian Strong.
Nike is also busy applying this ‘Unlimited’ creative concept and brand belief not only to its marketing, but also to its design and products such as the ‘Unlimited Colorway’ – which is inspired by bodies in motion and the vibrant flora and fauna of tropical rainforests (hint – Rio Olympics and Brazil).
Links
Nike Unlimited You Web:
http://news.nike.com/news/unlimited-you
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
Wieden & Kennedy, Portland:
