Cannes Lions

Nothing Beats a Londoner

WIEDEN+KENNEDY, London / NIKE / 2018

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Overview

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Credits

Overview

Description

From the bad weather, to controlling parents, to a sexist society, every kid in London has struggles. But rather than complaining about them, young Londoners use their hardships as fuel. An epic, mobile first, cross-platform, tale of one-downmanship, where kids outboast one another about how tough they have it, ‘Nothing Beats A Londoner’ aimed to capture young London authentically; real kids, real language, true stories, cult locations and a supporting cast made up of London’s most influential sporting and cultural figures.

The idea was to raise up the youth of London and make them feel like the sporting heroes they idolise. A world first blend between social media and film then saw the youth launch the campaign through their own Instagram channels. It proves the power of authenticity, getting under the skin of your audience and working with them to create work they want to engage with and share organically.

Execution

These kids’ entire world revolves around their phone, so that’s where we needed to be. We launched this 3 minute London epic through the youth, to the youth, on Instagram. On the day schools broke up for half term, grime legend Skepta posted the opening scene of the film on his Instagram, complaining about having to cycle somewhere. Chris - just a regular kid - replied to Skepta blasting him for being lazy! This kickstarted a battle of one-downmanship across London as one kid at a time commented on the previous one’s post with a film of their sporting hardship.

Once this social media battle had rolled out and kids were engaged on Instagram, the sum of the parts came together and the full film was launched to the world on YouTube. As this hit #1 on trending, it was followed by custom made ‘swipe up’ Instagram Stories, bespoke GIFs in Giphy and Snapchat stickers, all designed to engage the kids and direct them to sign up for free sporting events across the city so that they could spend their school holidays being active.

Outcome

SALIENCE

- Phenomenal response, including the Mayor of London, Drake and many other celebrities sharing organically.

- Trending #1 on YouTube.

- 9 million views of the full film on YouTube with over 18,000 comments (way above average).

- Organic Twitter moment.

- Over 171,000 click-throughs.

- 150+ pieces of media coverage, including publications like Fast Company, The Guardian, The Sun, BBC, Grime Daily, ITV etc. Many saying it was one of Nike’s all time best pieces.

- Inspired numerous parodies - Nothing Beats a Birminghamer, A Manc, A Sailor, etc.

- Countless kids reviewed the ad on their YouTube channels.

- Real kids on London’s streets using language from the film.

SPORT

Nike created over 10,000 opportunities to play sport.

Many Inspiring success stories from these events - e.g. a 15 year old from Grenfell Tower had unbelievable natural talent for rowing - now on a scholarship training program.

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