Lessons to be Learned From Greatest Marketing Campaign
There are few marketing campaigns that are worth praising. NIKE’s “Find your greatness” is one of the most creative marketing campaigns in the world’s history. NIKE has a lot to teach the whole world about marketing.
What was the reason behind the success of this marketing campaign?
Overview
In 2012 AD, the London Olympics was going to be held. Brands across the world were fighting for sponsorship. Adidas, Nike, Puma, and many more sports companies desperately wanted the official sponsorship title.
Adidas spent 40 million pounds to be the official sponsor of the London Olympics 2012. This means Adidas got a higher advantage over other sports companies in terms of marketing, visibility, and audience reach. They would easily win the marketing competition with other brands.
The London Olympics committee even issued strict rules and guidelines to avoid ambush marketing by other brands. For example, the brands were not allowed to use the word London Olympics in their advertisement and they were not allowed to film advertisements inside the London periphery. It was clear that the committee was trying hard to save their sponsor from being attacked by ambush marketing strategies.
According to Wikipedia, ambush advertising is a marketing strategy in which an advertiser “ambushes(attacks with surprise)” an event to compete for exposure against other advertisers.
In the end, Nike managed to win the marketing war with Adidas with less money, less advantage, and less support.
So, what exactly Nike did right in this marketing war with Adidas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYP9AGtLvRg
The Lunch of “Find Your Greatness” Campaign
On the opening day of the Olympics, Nike Launched the masterpiece advertisement titled “Find your greatness”.
“Find your greatness” film showed everyday athletes training, playing, and competing. The locations featured in this field were all called London. At first, the opening of the film featured London of Ohio, London Plaza, Little London of Jamaica, and London Hotel. The scene featured the Man training in a London Gym, then showing the rugby match scoreboard in London Field. Throughout the scene we can see kids skateboarding, cycling, playing rugby, women practicing hard in boxing, the one hand specially-abled kid throwing the ball in a baseball match. The common trait seen in every athlete is they are striving to be better and find their greatness within themselves.
The advertisement is trying to convey the message that “It is not only the professional athlete that aspires to push their limits, but we as a person should also strive to excel on our own terms, to set and realize personal goals and achieve our moment of greatness”.
This particular ad broke the internet. On day one this ad was ranking number one on YouTube, trending on Twitter with hashtag #findgreatness, and appeared on TV in 25 countries. Nike was getting praised by its fans across the world.
Lesson to learn from this marketing campaign
Finding Loopholes and Opportunities :
The Olympic community imposed strict rules to protect its sponsor. Words like “London Olympic”, “2012”, “Olympic” and logomark (5 rings) of Olympic were not allowed to be used by any brand that wasn’t the sponsor.
It was nearly impossible to do any marketing activities associated with the Olympics.
But the brilliant team of Nike managed to make an inspiring film Titled “Find your Greatness”.
Nike didn’t have permission to use the word “London Olympic” and shot the film inside London of England, but they found that there are other places with the name London. So, they shot their entire film in places like London of Ohio, Little London of Jamaica, London Gym hall, and other places named London.
Smartly Nike was able to show the word “London” in their film as if they were the sponsor of the London Olympics. Later on, their strategy came to work, and according to the survey done in the US, most of the people believed that the official sponsor of the London Olympics was Nike.
Nike also surprised its rivals by introducing a new line-up of shoes named “Volt”.
Nike was not allowed to appoint any athlete of the London Olympics in their advertisement. But, athletes were free to choose whichever shoe they wanted. So, Nike approached over 400 athletes to wear this Nike Volt.
This new shoe was designed in such a way that it easily catches the eye of a person. There was a combination of green and yellow color and had high contrast. Here, Nike used the psychology of color. This neon color was easy to spot in the crowd.
Following the mission and vision :
The vision of Nike is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Instead of pouring huge money on the sponsorship title, they gave their best in creating a “Find Your Greatness” ad that inspired millions of athletes across the world.
Nike sticks strictly to preserve their main mission and vision.
Most of the famous advertisements leverage emotion. Here is Nike’s ad, it leverages the emotion of inspiration to communicate its vision.
It’s said that “People forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel”. In this case, Nike did its best to make people feel inspired.
Giving extra to their customers :
Nike already had a huge customer base across the world. There wouldn’t be a problem if they hadn’t done marketing. Nike would still be the world’s largest shoe distributor.
There would be the customer expectation that their favorite brand would have done something good in sporting events. Everyone wants their favorite brand to shine. So, Nike managed to show extra effort to come out to be the best brand that the world would remember.
That’s how the biggest brands are made. They give extra effort to be in the topmost position of the hierarchy.
