To many observers, five-a-side football was the perfect embodiment of the beautiful game at grassroots level. The small-sided game was in the ascendancy, and Nike launched a bespoke set of Nike products adapted for this particular type of football.
Many young players found organised five-a-side too expensive so they would play in a disorganised way amongst themselves. To help them improve their game, Nike created “Show Your Five”, a national five-a-side tournament designed to appeal to an urban youth audience who typically wouldn’t enter tournaments of this size.
The consumer insight was based on a fervent desire for self-expression and fame amongst this young urban audience. Nike knew its urban audience had more things in their life than just football - music, going out, internet, gaming and girls also featured highly. They expressed themselves in different ways, football being just one of them.
Players enjoyed small-sided football as they got more touches of the ball, allowing them to express themselves on the pitch. In the most part, games of football were played on an ad hoc basis, rarely in a structured environment. These disorganised games would give them local fame and bragging rights, but a brand like Nike could help catapult them on to the national stage. Nike’s media campaign would give young players the opportunity to express themselves off the pitch as well as on it, whilst rewarding the better players by making them more and more famous as the tournament progressed. Players were honoured on a local basis, and given the opportunity to represent their city in the national final at Alexandra Palace.
Nike told the story of the tournament through video, in a way that embraced both self expression and fame. Partnered with YouTube, the world’s largest video platform, Nike offered an experience beyond anything achieved on YouTube previously.
Nike launched the first-ever simultaneous launch of a TV commercial and YouTube homepage takeover at 20.31, half-time break of a key Champions League game. By embracing dual consumption of TV and Online, Nike was present at the exact moment people began searching for the latest Nike Football ad on YouTube. Tactical online display throughout Google drove to the recruitment hub. Using regional taunts, partner agencies deployed tactical OOH, radio and mobile to provoke and inspire the best local team to represent their region.
Radio included a partnership with Xfm where DJs recruited for their own teams. Maintain Momentum Mindshare, with CC-Lab, produced highlights of local and regional tournaments. These were placed on Nike Football’s YouTube brand channel, to give bragging rights to the better players who were featured. For the first time, Nike allowed its audience the opportunity to edit and publish Nike content, tournament footage and their own photos/videos through an exclusive masher tool. Amplify YouTube promoted the final through Guest Editor slots, home-page banners, and display advertising throughout Google in the week prior. The final was broadcast on YouTube on Sunday 10th May, the first-time that an “appointment to view” had been created on YouTube. The content was again produced by Mindshare and CC-Lab. Extra content was created by a hand-picked YouTube Super User, Smivadee - who was given exclusive access to the events, one of the rare occasions that a brand has worked with a Super User.
The tournament sold out in ten days, with 2,160 teams taking up the challenge to “Show their Five” with YouTube placements driving a 500% increase in traffic in the first week of recruitment. Over the course of the campaign, 6,500 additional young players subscribed to the brand channel, an increase of 100%. There were over 20,000 videos created within the online editor, with over 400 videos published by users adding 80,000 views to the content tally. In total, there were 1.1m views of Nike 5 content over 3 months.
The campaign culminated with 30,000 visits to the brand channel on final day, with Final content driving 240,000 views itself. Smivadee created his most popular video ever, with over 95,000 views.
