With the tournament kicking off tomorrow and with all eyes firmly fixated on Brazil we have taken a look at the good, bad and ridiculously strange marketing campaigns for this years’ world cup.
The good: Nike –
Nike has been a star in the build up to this summer World Cup in Brazil and fully deserves their reward for being our brand of the tournament.
Despite fellow competitors Adidas being official partners of the 2014 World Cup, Nike has managed to oust them with two stunning advertisements as part of their ‘Risk Everything’ campaign.
For many people, we can relate with kicking a football around the park after school and at the weekend, trying to copy the skills of our favourite footballers. Nike took this concept and cleverly crafted this fantastic advert as the second part of their three series campaign.
Inspired by “The Incredibles”, Nike’s latest video named “The Last Game”, is a five minute animation that tells the story of a mad scientist who creates clones of some of the best footballers in the world. The human versions take too many risks on the pitch resulting in a higher percentage of failure; while the mechanical formed clones are precisely and mathematically tuned to never make a mistake and take the risk out of the game.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo then reunites the scattered squad, who have fallen on hard times, for a winner takes all game. The players go on to victory, highlighting the sports brands mantra of ‘taking risks beats the safety-first approach’ on the world football stage.
Collectively both advertisements have received over an astounding 100 million views on YouTube (on the 12th June) with the “The Last Game” advert only having been launched this week.
Using an emotive approach they’ve managed to stir sentiment through producing a robust story which enables people to form a stronger connection with the advertisements and the brand. Their messages also reflect the values of the brand and give a great insight into the core of Nike as a company. It’s a refreshing change of pace by Nike and according to Marketing Week’s report earlier this week it’s had a fantastic effect on sales for the sports brand.
Tune in tomorrow for our next instalment!