#findgreatness

This was the introductory video to Nike's find your greatness campaign. Although Adidas was the official sponsor of the Olympics (and paid a lot of money for it), with the help of this campaign and #makeitcount, Nike were the overall victors in the social media competition. Nearly one in ten (7.7 per cent) internet conversations about the Olympics were associated with Nike, compared to 0.49 per cent for Adidas, and 37% identified Nike as an Olympic sponsor, compared to 24% for real sponsor Adidas. They also gained more tweets, Facebook likes and YouTube views than their competitor.

We've seen Adidas' campaign for the London 2012 Olympics. Now let's take a look at what Nike did.

#findgreatness Nike launched their 'find your greatness' campaign to coincide with the London Olympics. Their campaign consisted of short, minute long videos which showcased 'everyday athletes' from different London-named locations around the world (e.g. London in Jamaica, Ohio, South Africa etc.). At the core of the campaign, the message is that one does not have to be a professional athlete to achieve greatness. Instead, every single person has the ability to push their limits, realise their goals and achieve greatness in their own personal way.

Introduction Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign was a virtuous example of fashion marketing in 2012. Presented with the grand issue of being outbid as an official global sponsor for the 2012 London Olympics by Adidas, Nike was challenged to forge a connection to its core audience and capitalize on the Olympic fever despite being prohibited from making any direct associations with the games. With an inability to tap into their library of athletic icons and superstars competing in the games and the barrier of inflated advertising rates in channels already flooded with other global brands: Nike rethought the formula for how a fashion marketing campaign’s ROI is calculated in today’s social world and set their sights on organic metrics that couldn’t be acquired via corporate sponsorship.  “Find Your Greatness” television spots and events supported by a global Youtube homepage and twitter handle #findgreatness, launched in 25 countries to coincide with the games’ opening ceremonies and continued for the duration of the Olympics. There were multiple creative executions drawn up by Weiden+Kennedy, but the essence was always the same – the penetrating and refreshing narration on athletic achievement and motivation: "Greatness, it's just something we made up. Somehow we've come to believe that greatness is a gift reserved for a chosen few, for prodigies, for superstars, and the rest of us can only stand by watching. You can forget that. Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. It's not some precious thing. Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We're all capable of it. All of us." According to Nike’s brand chief Greg Hoffman, "the idea was to simply inspire and energise everyday athletes everywhere and to celebrate their achievements, participate and enjoy the thrill of achieving in sport at their own level.” With the sports brand notorious history of ambush marketing for major sporting events, it was impossible to ignore this as an exercise in the effectiveness of audience segmentation and lesson in identifying scalability between communication channels.

Audience Segmentation The lasting image from the games that has since lingered within all of us wasn’t that of Gabby Douglas or LeBron James winning gold, it was that of an unknown, overweight young jogger with a drenched t-shirt, determined to push himself through a dry and peaceful dawn. There was no transformation into an athlete or long-term glory, simply a humbling and poignant image on the realities of the work Nike’s core audience lives through and associates themselves with. Other versions included young children taking on seemingly great feats and burgeoning athletes from developing nations playing together with barely any noticeable Nike apparel. A stark dichotomy from the awe-inspiring moments of athletic achievement, world records about to be broken, and intense focus about to be demonstrated emblazoned with Nike swooshes, logos and prints at the games. It was a consistent image all of us could connect with. It had nothing to do with nationality, trend, or gender – it was growth and that is as human as can be – and it burned in our collective memories because of that. The execution pays homage to the “Real Beauty” campaigns by Dove where reality is watermarked on a traditional message to open up the campaign’s appeal to a much broader audience, which worked well when mixed with the tones of inspiration and motivation in this campaign. You do not have to be the best to wear Nike. You have to want the best for yourself, because we do, and we are Nike.

Communication Channel Strategy Working with a broad message that touches its many audiences on an inclusive and unilateral theme of human inspiration and strive can be an incredibly cost-effective approach. Where other brands may segment their advertising to reach individual genders, sports, or nations, this method dealt with all of them at once and enabled Nike to capture a singularity in their voice. The organic social traffic generated from the campaign drove Nike to win significant share over its competitor in terms of brand recognition and awareness despite Adidas’ mammoth $150M budget. To solidify its dominance in the Olympics, Nike paired its unparalleled digital fitness presence with  the campaign, to inspire its over 7 million Nike+ members globally, with the closing day of the games to make it the most active recorded day ever through Nike+ and push themselves to work out, record it, post it and share it with their friends. By the end of the Olympics, Nike had 8.5 million Nike+ members globally.