Nike Summer of Football

None of the UK’s football teams had qualified for Euro 2008. Rather than take this lying down, Nike were determined to ensure that no future generation would suffer this indignity again.

The game was becoming increasingly aggressive, faster and global in style, so for young players to succeed, it would require grit and hard work, as well as natural talent. Nike wanted to inspire young players to up their game through a public demonstration of how top players improve their game mentally, physically and technically.

Nike teamed up with Guy Ritchie to direct a commercial that premiered as a two-minute solus ad break before the Manchester United versus Barcelona Champions League semi-final on ITV1. Key bloggers were identified and exclusive content was seeded to them. Real-time ads ran online when Nike athletes, including Fabregas, scored.

Some 110,000 players from Nike Club databases were sent postcards from Euro2008 saying “Wish You Were Here”. Nike also teamed up with the Premier League and Sir Alex Ferguson to search for the best unsigned footballing talent across seven cities in the UK and Ireland.

A rallying cry by Sir Alex ran during the Germany versusu Portugal match. Some 35,000 young people tried to register for the event within 15 minutes. 1,600 hopefuls were whittled down to 22 who would train with Sir Alex and become Most Wanted. Webisodes following three young hopefuls were aired on nikefootball.com, mobile and viral seeding. An hour-long programme entitle Sir Alex’s Most Wanted was also aired on Sky.

This campaign is Nike’s most successful advertiser-funded programming to date in terms of audience size. The content produced more than 800,000 targeted views across the different platforms. Sales also saw a significant shift, with Nike’s market share in football footwear increasing by 25%.