Game Changing Brands of 2011 - Part 2

Just do it !




The Nike commercials aired during the world cup celebrates the 'Just Do It' attitude through cricket mania. The commercial made its debut on March 30, 2011 during the semifinal making sure that the marketing campaign peaked at the right time to make a high decibel impact on masses.

The commercial seamlessly integrates and connects the raw street-style cricket played by youth all over India with the vibrant and bold cricket played by Team India. Through the connection between the two styles of cricket the commercial highlights the passion and the spirit of the game. The commercial is therefore rightfully named 'Yards' which signifies that the cricket crazy nation can claim their 22 yards in any nook and corner of India. Through the interplay of scenes they have drawn parallel connections between cricketing shots, emotions and crowd anticipation. The bigger idea is to dare the youth to dream and to conquer those 22 yards!

The aforementioned campaign was started under the "Bleed Blue Pledge" campaign started by Nike. It features elite cricketers talking about their passion for the game and evocative messages such as Dominate till you opponent fears you, Approach the game head on, Break Boundaries and Achieve dreams, Banish fear, Pain and most of all Excuses.

The commonality in both commercials is that, both are meshed with scenes of real matches to draw a stronger connect with the evocative messages.




The print media campaign also captures the imagination of young India with their depictive posters. 





"Blue is the colour that unifies the hopes and dreams of an entire nation. Wear it, and become a part of the team of millions who proudly bleed blue." was the message communicated through the print medium.




The marketing efforts also encompassed social media and other consumer events. One of the interesting aspect of the campaign was that Nike collected 11 million handprints via innovative digital and grassroot mediums. They asked fans to show their support by marking their handprints in blue. They also created  Youtube channel where fans can catch their favourite cricketers getting candid.

The entire marketing campaign makes use of the obsession of cricket in India very well and hence scores high on viewer likeability and brand recall. I guess people in India will continue to bleed blue!

Comments

Popular Posts