Nike’s latest spot may be shouting that ‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ (see case study), but the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has creatively countered with a responsive sailing campaign piggy-backing the success of the swoosh sportswear behemoth’s blockbuster spot.
Launched two weeks after the Nike commercial, the RYA’s digital and social video parodies the lauded celebration of the capital’s sporting and creative culture and counters with sailors, windsurfers, high speeds and high seas.
Like Nike’s Skepta cameo, the RYA spot starts with dinghy sailor and London DJ Asher Robinson saying: “So you do your sport in London? That’s light work. I do my sport on the ocean.”
Then, mimicking Nike creative approach, a fast cut montage sees a variety of skippers, sea-farers and mariners proceed to one-up one other in terms of the difficulty of their sailing style.
Amongst others, the spot features Olympic British sailing team member Sam Whaley and an appearance by three-time Paralympian Hannah Stodel.
The film also includes a clip from a team currently competing in the Clipper Round the World Race in the South China seas.
Released on 26 February on the organisation’s YouTube channel,
it is also being amplified across its other social platforms such as Twitter,
Nothing beats a Londoner? Nothing beats a sailor either! Having seen @NikeUK's “Nothing Beats a Londoner” advert, we’ve decided to show people what life is like on the water #nothingbeatsasailor #LDNRpic.twitter.com/zJqjD2HRl0
— RYA (@RYA) February 26, 2018
and Facebook.
“Having seen Nike’s “Nothing Beats a Londoner” advert, we’ve decided to show people what life is like on the water,” says an RYAS statement accompanying the video.
Created in-house, the aim is to leverage the buzz around the Nike work and demonstrate not just the toughness, but also the fun of sailing.
It ends with a challenge: “Let’s see if any other sports want to throw their hat in the ring.”
Comment:
At Activative we love a spoof spot – if it’s smart, comic and creatively compelling.
This is bang on trend and is truly one of the more surprising and slightly bizarre creative responses to Nike’s much lauded and much discussed W+K London campaign: this is a distinctly middle-class parody piggy-backing an advertising phenomena.
And why not?
In three weeks Nike’s spot has notched up more than 7m YouTube views on the brand’s own channel, while the RYA ad boasts 1000 YouTube views, 10K Facebook views and around 100 Twitter interactions in its first 24 hours.
Sail on!
Links:
Royal Yachting Association
https://www.youtube.com/user/RYA1875
