A Creative Marketing Concept For Nike Sneakers
We developed this creative marketing concept for Nike sneakers to tell a different story — one of failure, perseverance, and remembrance.
What is failure other than a starting point?
To us, failure is a path from which one can mature and better themselves. No one is perfect. And those that are wildly successful encountered countless missteps. But they kept going. Not all people respond to defeat the same way, though. Some give up while others dig deeper and push beyond whatever they thought capable. Within this context, not every tale of failure has a happy ending. Some people face defeat and never go beyond that threshold. But that is not to say they remain defeated. This creative concept is one such story.
Sports brands often rely on a theme of failure and triumph to rally their demographic. Again, most of us have faced failure. Those who have endured and overcome tend to connect with this cliched narrative. That’s why it is so wildly popular in mainstream marketing. Besides, who doesn’t identify with an underdog story? But what of the others? Who is sharing the story of those who were dealt a bad hand — who failed and never triumphed but persevered?
Our creative concept is powered by the heart of the athlete and the love of the sport. Failure is a chief theme. Triumph is not. With the negation of triumph and happy endings, we invoke remembrance. Some of us don’t play to win; to prove our strength; to show that failure does not have a hold on us. No. Some of us play for the love of the sport; for the freedom of remembering our childhood; for the feeling of our feet leaving the ground.
The Story Is the Product
From an advertising standpoint, this creative concept is selling Nike sneakers. From a marketing and branding standpoint, it is showing how Nike products empower everyday athletes.
A brand as massive as Nike demands clever marketing such as this. Hard sells don’t work. Nike’s consumers are influenced by storytelling. The product is second to emotion. Therefore, this creative marketing concept for Nike sneakers places feelings of empathy above product shots. This tactic strengthens the appeal of the advertisement and equips Nike sneakers with more value than what the product offers.
The defining moment — where the story becomes an advertisement — is confirmed 27 seconds into a 30-second video. The Nike sneakers are planted in the center of the frame. This moment is timed with a break in the dialogue. A pause lingers as the sneakers fill the screen. And when they lift off, the final words are spoken, pairing feeling with the product.
As an homage to a brand we love, we chose to conclude the video advertisement with an iconic shot. In the context of failure, this serves an intended purpose. We wanted to show that even athletes who fail and never triumph carry their heroes and their love for the game in every step taken on the court. This is a big moment and one that resonates with our audience. What it confirms is that you don’t need to be a star athlete to take flight like you always dreamed you could.
If you like this creative marketing concept for Nike sneakers, you should check out the work we’ve done with Karelle Edwards. She is a 500-meter Olympic hurdler from Canada set to make her Olympic debut at Japan in 2020. We’ve done a few shoots with Karelle. The first, we photographed at a track in L.A. The second, we photographed around downtown L.A. for an urban-centric athletic profile. Both shoots featured Nike sports products!
Behind The Scenes On The Set Of Nike
We filmed this video campaign idea for Nike in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We rented a high school gym and captured all of the photography and video content over the weekend. Our entire production team helped bring this idea to life. Working on creative videos like this is a great team-building exercise and perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of working with our studio.
We faced a few challenges during production. One was significantly more stressful than the rest!
On the first day of filming, we set up the scene. Standard. We tested the lighting. Set the mood with the fog machine. Set the camera track and so on until we were ready to start filming. The only problem… we were still waiting for our talent to arrive. Suddenly we get a phone call from the talent’s manager. They canceled on us last minute without explanation. Can you believe that? But we didn’t give up. No, we embodied the spirit of Nike and persevered.
Fortunately, luck was on our side. Outside the gym was our saving grace, the athlete seen in the video and the photography. It honestly could not have worked out any better. He was a great guy to work with and injected this video concept with the exact emotion we had envisioned.
Nike. Run!
Nike Training Campaign Concept
We are attached to the brands we use most, so when we’re inspired to create something original for a brand we love, we get right to work. When planning our passion projects, we aim to recreate what should be. We take the time to step back and analyze a brand from a new perspective — an artistic one. A while back, we had this idea for Nike of an athlete running through California’s rugged wilderness. The purpose of this creative marketing concept for Nike sneakers was to attach the brand to nature and fuse the product with the environment. The result is that the viewer can feel the apparel as if they are feeling the weather. It places our audience in the setting, showing them how it feels to wear Nike.
