Nike's 2012 Olympic campaign was a masterclass in strategic marketing
Nike's 2012 Olympic campaign was a masterclass in strategic marketing.
Despite not being an official sponsor, Nike outshone the official sponsor, Adidas - who had paid $150 million for the official sponsorship rights - and it was Nike that inspired a global audience and at the same time changed sports marketing forever.
Rather than sponsoring the event and announcing 'we're here', Nike targeted what the Olympics mean and the feelings they inspire in every participant and every viewer around the world.
Nike created a campaign that resonated deeply with audiences by focusing on what the Olympics at its core represents - determination, perseverance and the pursuit of excellence. Nike's campaign had four key pillars:
- Messaging. The core message, Find Your Greatness, focused on inspiring individuals to achieve their personal best, regardless of their athletic abilities.
- Everyday Athletes. The campaign featured ordinary people striving for their own greatness, rather than just elite athletes. This made the message relatable and accessible to a broader audience.
- Creative Workarounds. Nike wasn't allowed to use any Olympic imagery, but as the event was being hosted in London, Nike filmed their ads at all the other locations around the world named "London".
- Branding Olympians. Nike sponsored hundreds of Olympians, ensuring high visibility for their brand during the games. Nike also outfitted their sponsored athletes in distinctive "Volt" coloured shoes so to stand out in televised and photographic coverage of the Olympics.
Why Nike's campaign was genius
Adidas shelled out a hefty $150 million for the title sponsorship, but Nike cleverly worked around the sponsorship and all the restrictions and exclusions. Rather than focusing on what they couldn't do, they focused on what they could do.
Nike did pay for Athlete endorsements, campaign production and advertising costs, and while these costs were undoubtedly substantial, they were significantly lower and enabled far more flexibility than the price tag for Adidas' official sponsorship.
Nike's 2012 Olympic campaign was a strategic masterstroke that solidified the brand's position as a global leader in sports marketing.
Nike's unconventional approach to the Olympics set a new standard for sports marketing. It demonstrated the power of storytelling, emotional connection, and grassroots engagement. Many other brands have since adopted similar strategies.
How you can apply the same smarts to your brand
Let's face it, we don't all work for Nike and not every company is equally bold, courageous or able to take the risks Nike can.
But the lesson to be learned is not one of increasing risk taking or having a marketing budget the size of Nike's.
Nike's strategy proved that creativity and strategic thinking can often outperform large financial investments.
The lesson for marketers is to be smarter, to do more with what they have (or sometimes even more with less) and, without trying to sound too cliche, 'run your own race'.
As an example, let's look at another sport with big ticket sponsorship opportunities in Australia: Tennis.
Major sponsorships of Tier 1 events such as the Australian Open require brands to be, or aspire to be a certain size, have a certain level of broad brand appeal, require multi-year commitments and entail vast sums of money and resources.
Once committed to a large sponsorship planning for each annual event takes months, takes resources and focus away from other opportunities and despite all their effort often amount to little more than Adidas's 2012 Olympics 'we are here' sponsorship statement.
But how could a brand take what Tennis inspires and invokes amongst viewers and more casual participants and turn it into something more meaningful?
Pickleball is often described as America's fastest growing sport, but it is actually Australia's too.
In our recently released report for the health insurance sector we provided an insight that actually the sport more Australians are looking to, and one of the fastest growing sports in Australia is not Tennis or AFL or Rugby, it is actually Pickleball.
Pickleball in Australia is more 'Googled' than Tennis on a regular basis, the barrier to entry for participants is incredibly low, it is being taken up by a wide range of age groups, being embraced by corporate Australia as part of team building activities and yet - there's no single major event or sponsorship in place by any company.
Pickleball and Tennis even sort of look similar - although tennis purists will hate us saying that - but what is undeniable is that more Australians are creating and building familiar relationships with Pickleball.
Now, if some enterprising brand could just figure out an emotional link between themselves, Pickleball and their (now fading) hopes of being the next Federer, we think they could be on a winner.
So go on, dear marketer - find your greatness with your brand. Just do it.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/25/olympics-2012-nike-ambush-ad
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