| Title | 9 HEROES |
| Brand | NIKE JAPAN |
| Product / Service | NIKE BASEBALL |
| Category | A01. Corporate Identity Schemes |
| Entrant | BEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Entrant Company | BEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Advertising Agency | BEACON COMMUNICATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Yohei Yamada | Amana Inc. | Retoucher |
| Ryohei Takanashi | Amana Inc. | Cameraman |
| Yuta Sato | Amana Inc. | Producer |
| Eiji Nakamura | Root Communications | Producer |
| Masatoshi Fujiyama | Root Communications | Technical Director/Engineer |
| Toshinori Matsuura | Root Communications | Art Director |
| Amana | Production | |
| Root Communications | Interactive Design | |
| Takuro Amada | Beacon Communications K.k. | Strategic Planner |
| Shintaro Tanabe | Art Director | |
| Ryo Mochizuki | Beacon Communications K.k. | Agency Producer |
| Kenji Kondo | Beacon Communications K.k. | Account Director |
| Shuhei Tsuji | Beacon Communications K.k. | Copywriter |
| Jon King | Beacon Communications K.k. | Executive Creative Director |
| Kazz Ishihara | Beacon Communications K.k. | Creative Director/Art Director |
But in Japan, high school baseball players have a different ethos than their counterparts in the west. Team unity is paramount, and attention on individual performance is considered to be a secondary concern. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”.
Nike wanted to inspire and empower young athletes, so they launched a campaign targeting high school baseball players throughout the country.
The logo is a simple numeral 9 with a radical spreading of lines from the center. These lines represent the path back to their position taken by players after a huddle on the mound to talk around the pitcher. It signifies both the teamwork of coming together for a common win and the individual moment where each player needs to shine in which ever corner of the diamond he belongs.
The logo was applied to everything from DM packaging, mobile and pc site, to an actual baseball. We were able to track click through rates of more than 3 times to 7 times the normal DM rates in Japan (different positions used the mobile site more than others).