Margot vs Lily, a Nike original scripted series, is the latest iteration of the Nike Women Better For It campaign. The story focuses on a bet between two rival sisters: a socially awkward YouTube star and an exercise-averse party girl. At its core, the show is about fitness, but it touches on how every aspect of a woman’s life—career, interests, relationships—is better when she takes risks and makes the effort to improve.

Margot vs Lily came to life as an eight-episode web series spanning over 45 minutes of total content. True to the series plotline, the show lived within the world of YouTube, which is also the most popular destination for our target audience to watch videos online.

We rolled out the episodes on a weekly basis, which allowed us to engage young women over the course of eight weeks. Between episodes, we used social media to stir debate, generate conversation, and stoke the show’s fandom.

To give die-hard fans a way to more deeply engage with the show, we created a companion series of workout vlogs led by the Lily Ninja character. Each vlog extended the storyline of its corresponding episode and gave viewers direct access to the Nike products and workouts that were featured in the series.

Margot vs Lily was a hit. It accumulated over 110 million global views during its eight-episode run and entertained loyal fans through a total 45 minutes of in-depth storytelling.

As a testament to the quality of the storytelling, 28% of all comments in social are asking for a season two and 95% of the consumer comments were positive.

But beyond being entertaining, Margot vs Lily also drove the Nike business. The series drove over 2 million visits to Nike.com and 3.5 million app downloads.

Most importantly, Margot vs Lily got young women moving, with over 2 million workouts started on the Nike Training Club app.

Margot vs Lily was an original scripted series designed to entertain and inspire our audience. We told the story of two sisters who make a bet and go on a fitness journey together over the course of eight episodes, spanning over 45 minutes of total content.

To create the most entertaining and engaging series possible, we partnered with the creative team behind the award-winning movie Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

To drive deeper engagement among fans, we created bonus content in the form of vlogs that featured one of the main characters and extended the storylines.

In order to create a bigger platform for Better For It, we turned to the world of entertainment where we could tell a longer and deeper story, outside the boundaries of traditional advertising formats.

So we created Nike’s first-ever scripted series, allowing our audience to follow the ups and downs of an entire Better For It journey. This longer form of storytelling gave us the freedom to create real and relatable female characters that weren’t perfect but had the courage to face their challenges with honesty, optimism, and a sense of humor.

But more than just being a great piece of branded entertainment, we needed to inspire women to be more active. Our strategy was to make Margot vs Lily the first scripted series that came with an invitation to move.

Nike wanted to reconnect with women, who, despite being equally active as men, accounted for less than 20% of the brand’s revenue. The problem was that women saw Nike as an aggressive brand for competitive athletes rather than for everyday women who were passionate about sport and fitness.

So in 2015, we created Better For It, a new voice for Nike Women that distinguished it from the master brand and reignited its relationship with young women around the world.

Better For It inspires women to push through their challenges by reassuring them that their efforts will always be worth it in the end.

In 2016, we wanted to tell an even bigger and deeper Better For It story. The goal was to inspire young women to move their bodies, all while highlighting specific Nike products and driving downloads of the Nike Training Club and Nike Running Club apps.