For the 30th Anniversary of “Just Do It”, Nike wanted to inspire a new generation of young athletes and youth overall to realize their potential through sport. Nike, the number one sports brand, wanted to bring to life its iconic idea and line, “Just Do It” in a fresh way, relevant to youth athletes as well as culture at large.

Strategy:

The power of Just Do It has always been about inspiring people to push their limits through sport to overcome whatever is in their path. During a time when individuals in America can feel powerless, we wanted to show that no matter who you are, there is no limit to your potential, and that by having dreams that some would call “crazy,” you can achieve extraordinary things. If you chase your crazy dreams, you can make the impossible happen.

Creative:

By using a combination of both professional Nike athletes and “everyday” athletes, we showed a diverse range of men and women who have overcome different sorts of barriers to achieve their “crazy dreams.”

In particular, we showed how athletes have pushed through barriers both on and off the field – and in both in their personal lives and in society.

Our core target was a young athlete, but in order to succeed we knew we needed to engage the greater youth and pop culture audience. To do this built the campaign around three core strategies; authenticate our message through Nike athletes, own a huge sports moment when we knew the mass American audience would be watching, and then have Nike’s athletes appear larger than life in our key cities.

The campaign was specifically tailored to tap into social conversation through athlete social channels, live sports through the NFL season opener, and key city OOH through sharable walls, highly trafficked station dominations, digital screens and storefront takeovers.

To kick off the campaign Nike athletes posted their crazy dreams on social media, quickly creating interest within their communities and igniting debate across the world, especially around the inclusion of Colin Kaepernick.

We capitalized on this interest by tapping the Nike network again to launch the :90 anthem film featuring professional and everyday athletes chasing their dreams. As attention peaked, athletes posted the anthem to their channels, digital media added frequency and filters and lenses added, and we continued to scale by airing during the NFL Season opener to a mass audience of 19MM.

Additionally, we brought our message to where our athletes live and train by taking “Dream Crazy” OOH to the streets and city landscapes of LA, NYC, and San Francisco. Going a step further, we aligned our stories to the cities where these “Dream Crazy” journeys started: Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco, and Serena in Compton.

The campaign immediately ignited debate across the country and throughout the world. But while some people and news networks launched a boycott against the Nike and burned their shoes, millions came to the brand’s defense and praised the campaign for being on “the right side of history”. The campaign saw Nike’s stock price rise to an all-time high and created $6 billion in brand value, making it the most successful campaign in the brand’s history.