Nike grabs youth's attention with Rs 55 lakh new outdoor campaign

Sports brand Nike has recently launched an outdoor campaign for the Nike Sportswear collection, which includes Airmax 90, Cortez, The Nike Dunk, NSW Tee, Eugene Track Jacket and Windrunner.

JWT, the creative agency for Nike, has worked on the campaign. The creative is a collage of pictures of various young sports stars wearing and/or carrying Nike's products. It not only focuses on displaying the larger than life impression of youth power but also celebrates Indian and international sports stars who have crossed many milestones with their achievements, including Bhaichung Bhutia and Zaheer Khan.

Madhuri Sapru, managing director, Kinetic India, says, "The objective of the campaign was to emphasise the transformation of the sportswear into a fashion wear and it is very aspirational. The cities to launch this campaign in were chosen accordingly, where Delhi is hugely youth-focused and Bengaluru, too, being a young city."

The campaign rolled out in the two cities employs a mix of conventional and unconventional OOH options such as hoardings (in both cities), a mall façade in Bengaluru depicting international star Rafael Nadal, wall branding and free standing units within Delhi University's Metro station and branding of entry/exit gates at the Rajeev Chowk Metro station in Delhi.

The DMRC branding at stations were done on Big Street's (outdoor division of Reliance ADAG) properties. Here, a total branding space of 4,500 sq. ft was used at the Rajeev Chowk station - one of the busiest of the DMRC network in Delhi.

Strategically placed on the side walls of the two main entrances of Rajeev Chowk station, the campaign will attract four lakh commuters who visit the station each day. The Delhi University Metro station was also selected as it receives the maximum footfall of college students.

At the Metro station, many commuters, especially young men and women, were even seen stopping and viewing the entire branding strip and posing for photographs against the same.

This is for the first time ever that a gate at a Metro station has been completely branded. However, a number of challenges were faced in terms of creative and execution as the creative consisted of a number of posters entwined with the Nike logo, which put together forms a collage. Each staircase formed a different dimension in terms of height due to the descending structure of the medium.

Keeping in mind that wastage was to be minimised, the Nike logo had to be well placed and the fixtures of the medium, such as railings and lights, had to be included. Also, all nuances had to be taken care of with precision.

Nike has spent close to Rs 55 lakh on this outdoor campaign across the two cities. The campaign also employs print and online media.

While Nike is an aspirational youth brand and has a huge following across the globe, with attractive campaigns such as these, the company is going all out to stay top of mind and connected to its audience base.