Right now, football feels like it’s at an inflection point—at any given time, it can represent the best of humanity, or the worst. But, too often we were seeing football represent the worst version of us (racism, homophobia, inequity). As a result, people’s belief in the power of sport was waning.

Our brief became clear, we needed to restore people’s faith in the power of football by showing them what this beautiful game is capable of.

The Land of New Football is like the old one, minus the nonsense. We imagined football as a land made of ALL the pitches in the world stitched together – celebrating the scale and power of the well over 3 billion players and fans who play on their own terms, and saying no to the dated ways of the game. The idea sets a new vision for global football where there is room for all, treating the community as a nation and building on that idea through different touch points.

Our target audience was Gen-Z: 8-23 years old, all genders (equally focused on women). This was a departure from the more sport-focused, masculine audience we normally target.

Instead of going full on sport performance, we wanted to tap into a broader, Gen-Z insight. We know that this generation is hungry to make change, improve their lives, and ultimately make the world a better place (more so than previous generations).

So, our approach was to show them how football can become a platform to make those things possible. We knew our work needed to celebrate the best, most progressive parts of the game and dismiss any of the non-sense. By doing that, we were able to highlight the athletes who are using football to drive real change in the world. Ultimately, encouraging others to follow suit by tapping into the power, diversity, and scale of football.

For three weeks while the Euros tournament swept the continent, we spread our vision for a land of new football everywhere that footballers were consuming the beautiful game. Our film ran in TV, cinema and across digital channels in eight countries across Europe, as well as South Africa. In Nike’s global social channels, we spotlighted the real heroes of football who are changing the game for the better in their communities. And in Snapchat, we let kids broadcast the magic happening on their own pitches with custom World Lenses.

Our film garnered over 130 million views in nine countries during the Euros tournament. In digital channels, we achieved 25% coverage and over 44 million completed views of the film.