PLAY THE REAL THING

TitlePLAY THE REAL THING
BrandNIKE JAPAN
Product / ServiceNIKE FIVE
CategoryA06. Best Use of Special Events And Stunt/Live Advertising
EntrantBEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN
Entrant Company:BEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN
Advertising Agency:BEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Shunsuke Kakinami beacon communications k.k. Creative Director/Planner/Producer
Shuhei Tsuji beacon communications k.k. Senior Copywriter
Yusuke Morotomi beacon communications k.k. Art Director, Designer
Masato Konno beacon communications k.k. Art Director, Designer
Ryo Kobayashi beacon communications k.k. Copywriter
Takuro Amada beacon communications k.k. Strategic Planner
Norio Serizawa beacon communications k.k. Account Supervisor
Kenji Kondo, Satoshi Inoue beacon communications k.k. Account Director
Root Communications Website Production Company
TYO PRODUCTIONS Film Production Company
Takeshi Fukuda TYO PRODUCTIONS Executive Film Producer
Satoshi Mori easeback Director, Editor
Hiromichi Takagi TYO PRODUCTIONS Film Producer
Koichi Shibukawa, Shun Uesugi TYO PRODUCTIONS Film Production Manager
Shingo Fujii oddjob Creative Coordinator
Takuya Murakami Artist Bureau Sound Designer
Masashi Sasaki Camera
Shohei Mukaide TENPRINT Book Producer
Jun Fukahori Root Communications Photo Producer
Ryosuke Dohi CAS & CAS Photographer

Results and Effectiveness

Nike sold out, of all NIKE5 boots and clothing. The matches became more and more crowded with spectators as the rumors got out that a mysterious professional team was at the local field playing any team who challenged.

Creative Execution

We used the actual futsal fields as our media. We created a mystery dream team of futsal professionals to invade tournaments across the country. They were like a futsal “Harlem Globetrotters” putting spectators and other players in awe with their skills and expertise. Our Nike5 mystery team started invading fields and playing games to whoever wanted to challenge. These masters gave an abject lesson in how the game is played at the highest level, time and time again.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Futsal is a game of five-a-side football played on a small field. The sport is growing in Japan but few people have seen or experienced it played at higher level outside of weekend get-togethers. In fact many players don’t even know the real rules. The objective was to promote this high performance line of products to Japanese players. But how do you launch high performance sportswear to weekend players? Our idea was to “Play the Real Thing.” Nike needed to create a benchmark for the game and give players the opportunity to experience first-hand how it can really be played.