Nike: Just Do It - The Origins.

Nike. Just Do It. There are a thousand things you can say about this brand and this slogan. Over the years, through many campaigns and products, Nike has reached the holy grail of branding - becoming popular and cool at the same time. Very few brands reach the peak of each of these.

Just Do It has become an iconic slogan - one of the all time greats. It not only encompasses everything that Nike is - it's everything that life should be. It fits Nike and it's products, but it can be applied to almost any area of life, and that is why it is so great, so powerful and so lasting. It is work like this that made me want to do advertising, to inspire, and actually make a difference.

Nike: Find Your Greatness.

It's the Olympics, we're all well aware. But for Nike, that's not where all the greatness is this summer.



Nike's 'Olympic' ad, wasn't one of my favourites, but it has really started to grow on me. Although the advert itself doesn't wow you to the extent that other Nike ads have done in the past, it's a really nice sentiment to it and wonderfully written. The entire campaign ties in really nicely with the rest of their activity - for example London underground ads - "Greatness doesn't stand on the right" - especially the jogger ad below. This ad is probably one of the most simple Nike ads I've ever seen, yet it is one of the best written. It is inspiring, it's compelling and like many great Nike ads, it's not about the brand, it's about the person wearing them.

Nike: My Time Is Now.

It's been a little while since I've posted an advert on here, but a Nike ad almost always requires some attention. Their latest spectacle, My Time Is Now, arrives just in time for the Euro football tournament this summer. It appears to be the pinnacle for the My Time Is Now campaign, as Nike are taking it upon themselves to bleed the new talent into the world of football. This ad features some of European football's greats, Ribéry, Sneijder, Ronaldo up against the new kids on the block Neymar, M'Vila, Götze, and a few more hundred hopefuls.



This ad was inevitably going to be compared to Write The Future, Nike's last big ad for the 2010 World Cup. Does it stack up? For me, not quite. It is shot in a very similar style, which perhaps lacks a bit of imagination, it's not as funny as WTF and is completely focused on the pitch and the stadium surroundings. WTF featured Rooney (who doesn't feature at all, nor does any England player apart from a split second of Wilshere and supposedly Welbeck) in a caravan, Homer Simpson and Youtube. MTIS only features Lebron James, who feels a little out of place. Plus Neymar - the star of the ad - isn't European, didn't that occur to anyone? This is all not to say I didn't like the ad, I just expected better I think, it just feels like a Write The Future - Lite.

Pigalle Paris: 'BARBES BASKETBALL'

Really great short video here. Beautiful shots, combined with slick editing and a minimal soundtrack add up to an eerie, intense and gritty film. The grime yet soul-filled streets of Paris are reflected perfectly in the sport of basketball. Great power behind the piece.

Nike Counts

Whilst referencing just about every film worth referencing, Nike do what they usually do, tell you to just do it.



#makeitcount

Nike Shoe Cushions.

It only seems natural that Nike start putting in their super soft and cushiony insoles, or 'Lunarlon technology' into some of their skateboarding shoes, the first being Nike SB Eric Koston. Oh what do you know, they've only gone and got him in the ad!



I've got to admit a lot of the imagery in this ad is pretty corny, but it works and it still comes across as cool. I guess that's a sign of a truly great and cool brand.

Nike: The Ronaldo Generation.

Some player change the game, the stand out against a hundred other players on their team and all the others. And from those free, one defines a generation. Ronaldo defined a generation.

We are all more than aware that we are in the Lionel Messi generation, but as a kid, when I learnt to love the beautiful game, idolize my favourite players and got the ball at my feet, it was all about Ronaldo. He was the man. The tricks, the dribbles and most importantly, the goals. Watch and learn.



I really like the fact that Nike's tribute to the great man avoids clips of him and shows the impact his game had on the outside world, on the kids, the fans, the game. Like many idol, his fall from grace was not that pretty, but remember the man for what he was and what he did. He was a great. He changed the game, the best game that there is.

Nike 6.0: The Pool

This is what Nike is all about, and what other brands need to take notice from. Nike combine the talent of professional sportsmen to put on an event that is watched by the immediate community, but is then shared around the world for all to watch. It is this knowledge of their target audience and the skill to produce what they want to see that puts Nike up with the top brands in the world.

In their latest project, for their 6.0 department, they decided to covert Dagenham's local swimming pool into a skatepark and they get some very, very good BMXers to rip it up. Seriously some of the tricks are insane. Watch.

Nike: Sport Is Art.

Nike are one of my favourite brands, and one of the biggest brands in the world because they understand that you always have to do more. You have to do more for your customers, you have to say more than "we have the best running shoes", they understand that you have to speak to more than your obvious target audience in more ways that the obvious. Over the years this had lead them to produce innovative projects both in the mainstream and the dark, yet influential underground.



This latest project got "array of street artists, designers and illustrators from around the world to splash their flying imaginations onto a T-shirt. By using a T-shirt as their creative canvas, they were to draw inspiration from Nike’s Air Max classic series. Through various mediums, including computer illustrations, sketches and ink splashes, etc., a creative pattern is formed vividly on a T-shirt, fully interprets the essence of “Sport is Art”." (Hypebeast)

Nike. Be Free.

Here's Nike's latest spot, it's pretty special. For this latest campaign they are using photographer Denis Darzacq and director Barnaby Roper, I can't wait to see the rest of the work.

Nike: Better World

This post directly relates to the previous for two reasons. Obivously Nike and Adidas, being the two biggest sports brands in the world, go hand in hand as much as they lock their sweaty horns. But also because they have this constant awareness that sport is about so much more than football, basketball, goals, points, winning and losing. The way in which they have conveyed this over the years is so believable because it so true.

Their latest ad, a greatest advertising hits, is perhaps more explicit in explaining the power and impact of sport than previous ads, but you can't deny a single word of it.

TED: Ads Worth Spreading.

TED recently announced the winners of the Ads Worth Spreading competition. Ted, for those not in the know, is a non-profit organisation that is all about promoting and encouraging ideas that look to change the world in a better way. From the fields of technology, design and entertainment TED "believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world". It's an incredible organisation and something you need to pay attention to.

Back to the ads, this competition really makes sense to me. I undertook my dissertation on virals and investigated if there was a trend or some sort of formula that leads to creating a successful viral. My own research proved that it's almost impossible to come up with some sort of formula, adverts that in theory should be wildy successful can flop and those that just seem to make no sense set the internet alive. However one trend that came from my dissertation, and is in fact my attitude anyways, was that successful adverts are ones that are made for consumers not just towards consumers. It sounds obvious but if an advert is genuinely found entertaining, interesting or useful you really are half way there.

Or as TED put it:

Here are the 10 winners of our first Ads Worth Spreading competition. With this competition, we're seeking to reverse the trend of online ads being aggressively forced on users. We want to nurture ads so good you choose to watch. On TED.com, ads run after our talks, not before. This means they can run longer than the TV-standard 30 seconds. And that's the key! In 2-3 minutes, there's enough time to really tell a story, share an idea, make an authentic human connection, become unforgettable. Instead of ambush, they offer pleasurable, intelligent engagement.

Here are the ads, some I agree with, some I don't, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts:

Chrysler



Topsy Foundation



Savory Institute



Nike Foundation



Nokia



Intel



Batelco



Dulux



Target



Hornbach

The Legend Of The Black Mumba.

When Nike decided to get together the likes of Kobe Bryant, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Trejo Bruce Willis and Kanye West, something epic and over the top seemed destined to happen. This short film depicts Bryant in his brand spanking Black Mumba shoes fighting the forces of evil and most notably, The Boss: Kanye West (I imagine Kanye put himself forward for this role). The budget for this short must have been ridiclous, some next level advertising.




I think they just about get away with the cheesy end line.

Bryant: Black Mumba.

This looks ridiculously good on so many levels.

Nike: The Cage.

After linking this video and then watching it, I just simply had to include it. It’s incredible. The players in there (not that many of them are still playing), the skill, the attitude, the filming and the simple cheekiness of it all is just perfect. One of my favourite ads of all time and the reason I wanted to get into the business. Great advertising, but more importantly great football.

Vive Le Nike!

I love Nike ads. There's no doubt about it, when I was younger I would watch The Cage adverts over and over, memorised by the talent and skill on display by some of the world's greats. Not knowing it then, this was when my love for advertising started. It is the very essence of advertising, watching something because it appeals to you, it interests and entertains and as a result of that you might remember the brand and like it a little more. Nike (along with Adidas) have produced this essence in their ads time and time again.

Vive Le Football Libre is not their greatest advert but it still combines the Nike formula. This formula appears to combine the passion, skill and determination of the the beautiful game right from the parks to the 70,000 seater stadiums, it doesn't matter if you're a kid or a superstar, it's all about the passion. (Note the part where all the seats flip up, wonderful shot.)

Nike: Just Do It, Anywhere.

This is the sort of campaign that few brands could get credit for, and build a positive buzz around it. And Nike are one of them. It is not clear whether they are actually going to be implemented, but their agency Access Agency explain the effect such a campaign could have across all channels.

Anyways here's their ideas:










Cool right?

Who Really Won The World Cup?

According to their latest viral, it was Adidas:



The strapline "The Lightest. The Fastest. The Deadliest" appears, before the text "2010 Fifa World Cup Top Scoring Boot", as Adidas claim their F50 won the World Cup. These are the goal stats, according to Adidas: Adidas 63, Nike 62, Puma 9, Other 11 (145 goals). However it looks like these figures may have been tampered. The Adidas goals actually include 2 own goals, and I'm guessing this is not a great selling point for you football boots.

I'm hoping for a Nike comeback viral.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Message.

This has got me thinking this week:



As I'm sure most of you are aware, this is the new Nike advert featuring Tiger Woods with his father's, Earl, voiceover asking him some very deep questions. And that's it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Nike's past advertising, yet this advert does nothing, apart from raise a bit of publicity. It coincided with Tiger's post-shagging golf comeback and was sure to get people talking and rack up the views on Youtube, which it has. But I'd like to think that Nike is cleverer than that. Go Fucking Compare has people talking, but we all know how shite that advert is. This advert doesn't really seem to do much for Tiger or Nike, and I think it let's itself down. I really think that they could have produce an advert with much more substance and presence, especially with such an opportunity that would have gotten people talking regardless of the quality of the advert. Maybe I'm missing the point, let me know what you think.