Situation: There was a confluence of important events surrounding baseball’s biggest moment, the July 2021 All Star Game. The year started with the loss of the game’s most consequential figures, Hank Aaron. At the same time, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the voting rights law that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Atlanta, the birthplace of Hank Aaron was meant to be the home to the 2021 All Star game until the MLB pulled the game out of Atlanta.

Brief: Hank’s legacy mattered even more today because of the blueprint for change he provided for us all. Our opportunity was to remind fans of the lasting impact Hank had on the game, and the work we need to carry on beyond the game.

Objective: Leverage the past not to inspire the future, but to encourage young Black and Brown diamond athletes to create it.

Pay homage to the great Hank Aaron by recreating one iconic moment in his career and connecting it to young athletes playing the game their way, to inspire them to “keep swinging” in their quest for progress.

This uplifting film combines Vin Scully’s iconic call of Hank’s Aaron’s record setting 715th home run, brings in the archival footage and mixes in young kids recreating the moment while breaking rules, and pushing the boundaries of Baseball.

The visual storytelling uses a unique editorial technique that is true to how youth today make their videos and the narrative thread is driven by the iconic call to create an inspiring tension with raw emotions and seamless movement.

The problem: Baseball needs kids more than kids needs baseball. Especially Black and Brown kids, who are more likely to be left behind in a pay-to-play competitive reality and uncompelled by a sport that’s been stripped of it’s color and personality. In the words of the young people that baseball wants to attract to the game:????????F

Athlete truth: Hank’s career and legacy has meaningfully impacted and influenced the victories of future generations on and off the field.

“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.” - Hank Aaron

Player truth: Honest expressions create new realities.

Strategy: It’s not about play, it’s about progress. We collided the truth of Hank with the raw, agitating energy of young players today.

We launched it during All-Star Weekend on CTV and paid social with key players pushing the story on their own channels.

Within the halls of Nike HQ, this work was heralded as the “Best most layered expression of the Play New campaign.”

Keep Swinging film has received 2x the engagement of any other content previously posted across Nike Diamond’s social channels.

Hank’s foundation called the work “a 3-kleenex moment.”

“The stuff you are doing here is the stuff I have dreamed of having for his legacy. You are bringing to life more than I ever thought we could accomplish in the first year of his passing. Thank you and your team so much for capturing what I had known the man to be.”