NIKE'S ALL-STAR WEEKEND: BETTER THAN BROADCAST

TitleNIKE'S ALL-STAR WEEKEND: BETTER THAN BROADCAST
BrandNIKE
Product / ServiceJORDAN
CategoryE07. Content Placement
EntrantMINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Media Placement MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Production MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Additional Company TENCENT Shenzhen, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Vicky Huang Nike Director
PT Black Nike Senior Director
Matt Nolan Mindshare Partner
Selina Li Mindshare Director
Harry Li Mindshare Manager
Roy Qian Mindshare Senior Executive

Background

Live games are a must-win moment for Nike, and the All-Star Weekend is a huge annual moment of live games to engage basketball fans across 3 days. As a critical moment for Nike, the brand created a unique line of Jordan products customized for the moment. But more important than product, Nike wanted to use the moment as an opportunity to innovate the viewership experience itself based in the digital behaviors of its audience. In doing so, Nike wanted to create an opportunity to make media the destination, rather than making ads that disrupt the viewership experience. Objective: Own the All-Star Weekend and create a digitally unique content viewership experience for fans.

Describe the creative idea

In a first-of-its-kind execution, created and tailored just for Nike and its fans, we brought together all the elements of our audience's viewership experience together in one place: Nike’s Jordan WeChat Mini program. Only within Nike’s Mini Program could users watch the live stream, while simultaneously chatting with friends in real-time chat rooms on China’s most popular social channel. Not only that, users had access to limited edition content and products in a seamless consumer journey, extending from entertainment to purchase. This approach also allowed Nike to flip the way it engaged with consumers. By putting their digital desires first, Nike didn’t need to rely on paid media to push product and disrupt the viewership experience. Rather, Nike became the ‘total experience’ that its audience wanted.

Describe the strategy

We are speaking to digitally engaged ballers aged 16-29. When a game is live, they are a digitally distracted audience as they flip across screens and platforms to maximize their viewership experience. They aren’t just watching the game passively; they are also talking about the games in real-time on social, checking the latest player statistics, and – most importantly – they are searching for the latest products worn by their favorite athletes. As a digitally distracted audience looking for more ways to interact during live game moments, there was an opportunity for Nike to elevate and consolidate these aforementioned experiences, all within Nike’s owned e-commerce channels. This led us to the idea of integrating all of the digital behaviors into one viewership experience: Nike’s mini-program on WeChat. (WeChat Mini programs are H5 experiences that function like mobile websites/apps within WeChat.)

Describe the execution

To create this unique, integrated All-Star Weekend viewership experience for fans, we needed to create, code, and negotiate for a totally new media format that would allow us to embed the viewership with a Nike owned channel. The experience became the core of the campaign and allowed Nike to truly hijack the All-Star Weekend moment in a way that traditional ‘paid media’ could never achieve. The media itself became what consumers wanted, and that’s just what the brand gave them through a totally new digital experience. To bring this unparalleled experience to consumers, Nike amplified a call-to-action on Tencent Sports and social channels, leveraged the brand’s own social channels to engage existing members, and through WeChat’s new ‘@’ function, enabled users to organically bring their friends in to the live game chat rooms.

List the results

Nike changed the game on how it engages basketball fans during must-win live game moments. By flipping the script on ‘advertising’ and becoming the experience fans wanted most, consumers raced to Nike’s owned channel on WeChat en-masse to access All Star Weekend content, setting a new standard for both Nike, and the entire category and mobile-marketing industry. As a result, Nike delivered incredible short-term results with product sell-through, along with long-term results through sustained consumer connections with All-Star baller fans. While the Nike’s ASW experience was live, Jordan brand created a 206% increase in the traffic to the Nike MP. Beyond the short-term value of traffic and one-off revenue, Nike’s activation with Jordan during ASW also contributed to a 240% increase in membership during the campaign period. This showcased the value of selling the ASW experience over the product, maximizing fans' long-term value of staying connected with Nike.

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