RUN THE WORLD

Short List
TitleRUN THE WORLD
BrandNIKE
Product / ServiceNIKE
CategoryB05. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
EntrantMINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation 2 WIEDEN+KENNEDY SHANGHAI, CHINA
Media Placement MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Production WIEDEN+KENNEDY SHANGHAI, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Cici Chen Mindshare China Strategic Planning Director
Sheep Zeng Mindshare China Strategic Planning Manager
Simple Chen Mindshare China Strategic Planning Supervisor
Betty Tian Mindshare China Planner
Tendayi.Chivero Mindshare China Partner
Jennifer Zhu Kinetic General Manager
Pierre Xu Kinetic Account Business Director
Him Zhou Kinetic Account Manager
Fionn Shen Kinetic Account Executive

The Campaign

In China, running is already a growing lifestyle. Marathon events have increased by 13% in 2017 – reaching 500,000+ more people vs 2016. (Source: Sports event website data: Geexek) But to take running to the next level and make React China’s most popular running shoe, we needed to do something bigger – to make runners the heroes! Unfortunately, running is not a spectacle sport – it doesn't have a single large platform where thousands of fans and come together and celebrate runners. Televised marathons are limited – and rarely broadcast in their entirety, and the live marathon experience limits large crowds fully witnessing the epic nature of marathoner achievements – audiences can only see runners for a few seconds before they continue along the track. Neither does running have a dedicated sports channel like basketball, nor massive stadiums like football. Where then can we find the pedestal to glorify runners?

Creative Execution

In Metro City, one of Shanghai’s busiest districts, we converted the iconic spherical building into a huge model of the earth using LED projection mapping technology. We invited 7 celebrities to try the React shoes and run on a special treadmill that could project their image on top of the huge globe – allowing people from all over the city to see him running on top of the world. All around Shanghai, huge billboards in famous landmarks, parks and subway stations featured our big launch. We also livestreamed the entire event and amplified widely with online influencers to get everyone’s attention for this stunning event. Short videos of the big launch flooded online – coverage extended across China via all around key social and video platforms including WeChat, QQ Music, Youku, etc. We used Unidesk to do precision targeting – tapping and convincing inactive customers in the shoe category.

Our online videos got a massive 46 million views. The event received over 2 million views on livestream. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou’s Sports TV channels and Shanghai entertainment TV all reported this event with 11 million views, PR value 1.6million, 4 times of our budget! The campaign generated huge buzz on Weibo, one of China’s biggest social platforms – achieving 1.5 million likes and over 78 million impressions on one of our topics. And as a result of our precision targeting, we successfully attracted 40% of inactive consumers with thousands of shoes sold just from this group.

This case shows how we leverage media to help Nike make running a bigger thing in China. Observed that running is not exactly a spectacle sport – it does not have a single large platform where thousands of fans and come together and celebrate runners, we decided to make the city our stage. Creating a surprising outdoor stunt building our monument to celebrate runners, while decorating the entire city by running messages, we attract the city’s attention and we maximize the impact via social media.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

To make this sport the public’s center of attention, we needed to find the stadium equivalent for running. Which didn’t already exist in China. So, we made the city – and one of its most iconic buildings – our stage. To get all eyes on Nike React, we chose a landmark in Shanghai, an iconic spherical building, that runners and pedestrians all over can see. We made this giant globe served as our monument to celebrate runners. And we decorate the entire Shanghai, huge billboards in famous landmarks, parks and subway stations featured our big launch. All these are amplified and shared all over major entertainment and social platforms, including social media WeChat, Online video app Youku and iQiyi, short video platforms Douyin, Pear video and Xigua video, music app QQ Music, to maximize its impact, with precise targeting by leveraging Unidesk, tech giant Alibaba’s big data bank.