Nike Ad Analysis - Report Example

Nike Ad Analysis Nike Ad Analysis Introduction Undoubtedly, media has its ultimate controlon all mediums of mass communications in the entire world. For this reason, its existence has now become essential for the global society. It is understood that each media platform is quite influential, i.e. television, radio, print, online, etc. however, it is important to discuss that the advertising industry which is worth $ 19 billion is of vital significance among them all (Aitchison, 2012). Advertising is present all over television, newspapers, magazines, radio, and Internet, to name a few, and influences our everyday life. Advertisers use different techniques and approaches to persuade and influence the audience towards their product, service, etc. There are numerous ad campaigns that have marked company’s success through their effective concepts and execution. The ad campaign that is selected for this research paper is Nike 2014 ‘Risk Everything’ campaign. The paper will present information (both theoretical and visual) along with its success, reach, competitors etc. An ad analysis is important than the actual message of the advertisement. An ad has a striking impact on the consumer when the actual message is assessed and calculated appropriately. It is significant that the ad analysis should be done while considering the general ambience or the core theme of the advertisement, what are the emotional elements that are used in it, what signs and symbols are used and how do they create an impact, are there any figures in the ad (for example, men, women, children etc.), what target audience does it cater, why is it created, etc. Nike – Background Nike communicates directly with its consumers through its advertisements. Founded in 1964 the company was started by a University of Oregon’s track athlete, Philip Knight. The American multinational corporation is heavily engaged in the production, design, development, and global marketing of products and services including apparel, sports equipment, footwear, etc. (Nike, 2014). To note, the company is the leading manufacturer and supplier of athletic footwear and clothing. As per its annual financial report of 2013, the company has annual revenues of US$ 25.3 billion. The company houses more than 44,000 employees globally (Blythe, 2013; Nike, 2014). Nike has always emphasized on advertising and marketing strategies. It was in 1982 when Nike broadcasted its first advertisement. Since then, the company has been able to receive ‘Advertiser of the Year’ award in the Cannes Advertising Festival, in 1994 and 2003 respectively. Sports culture has been an integral part of daily lives and Nike has successfully become a part of the street culture by endorsing celebrities (Aitchison, 2012; Nike, 2014). Although there are numerous successful ad campaigns that are run by the company such as, Just Do It, Hello World, Tiger Woods Shows Off, Go Tell the World, Find Your Greatness or the famous Bo Knows campaign, the ‘Risk Everything’ campaign is the most viral campaign of the 2014 FIFA World Cup (Fidelman, 2014; Blythe, 2013). Nike – Risk Everything ‘Risk Everything’ is a 2014 ad campaign that was created for the American multinational sports apparel company Nike. Wieden + Kennedy which is an American advertising agency, created the campaign (McGuire, 2012; Nike, 2014). The campaign was made for the FIFA World Cup 2014. The campaign starred some of the well-known and famous football players from national teams and clubs from across the world (Aitchison, 2012; Blythe, 2013). The major theme of the ‘Risk Everything’ campaign emphasizes on risk taking. The main idea was to show how it feels to carry on the hopes of a country and its people. Therefore, the ultimate goal should be to take every potential and risky (life or death) chance in order to attain success (L.G. & L.L., 2009; Lee & Johnson, 2013). The Risk Everything ad campaign was a series of electronic and print ads that showed the football celebrities feeling the intensity of the competition while they are fighting their way to win the match against their competitor. The players suddenly come to a point where they have no option instead of taking a risk to give an amateur player a chance for a penalty kick (McGuire, 2012; Nike, 2014). (Nike, 2014) Medium It is studied that the Risk Everything campaign was witnessed everywhere on media. From television, to print ads, radio and Internet, the campaign went viral on all mediums of mass communication (Fidelman, 2014). The major mediums on which the ad campaign ran are presented as follows. Television The ad campaign entitled ‘Risk Everything’ included three television advertisements. Nike released these advertisements across the United States of America, Europe and the United Kingdom. The names of these television advertisements are: Risk Everything, Winner Stays, and the Last Game (Nike, 2014; Blythe, 2013). 1- Risk Everything: The Risk Everything ad campaign stars Brazilian footballer Neymar, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney of England. As it has been aforementioned, the advertisement is all about the pressure these football players experience during the FIFA World Cup while playing for their country (Blythe, 2013). The advertisement has taken help of the emotional factors as Ronaldo is shown surrounded by his fans and numerous advertisements everywhere, while the people of Portugal counts their hope on him. Similarly, Neymar who is shown wearing the prestigious shirt of No. 10 Brazil, is also trying to live up to the dreams of his fans and country. On the other hand, Rooney is shown facing cynicism by people he meet or everywhere he goes (L.G. & L.L., 2009). The TV advertisement ends with all the three players walking towards the pitch of the ground leading their teams and a tag line which says, ‘Pressure shapes Legends’ (L.G. & L.L., 2009; Nike, 2014). 2- Winner Stays: In the second television advertisement, it is shown that a group of friends consented to play a football match with a condition that the winning team will stay on the field. The ad then shows that the players pretend themselves and then transforms into celebrities such as Neymar, Ronaldo, Rooney, David Luiz, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gonzalo Higuain, Thibaut Courtois, Andrea Pirlo, Andres Iniesta, Thiago Silva, Mario Gotze, Eden Hazard, Tim Howard, and Gerard Pique. At the end of the match, there is a tie and a situation of the ‘next goal wins’ is shown. Suddenly a young boy comes forward. Because of the intense pressure that builds upon him as the entire world is watching the match he grabs the ball from Ronaldo and successfully scores the penalty kick against his rivals, winning the match (Blythe, 2013). 3- The Last Game: The Last Game is yet another television advertisement of the Risk Everything series. With the collaboration of Passion Pictures, the Last Game is an animated feature. A scientist is shown in the ad that gives a presentation regarding the recklessness of the players during the football match. The recklessness points at the number of risks the players take during these matches therefore he reveals clones that can outcast these players so that no error can be left and the match is played perfectly without any risks. Sooner, football becomes extinct as the football players are replaced by the clones that are efficient and accurate however defeating the players also endangered the world of real football (Blythe, 2013; Nike, 2014). It is further shown that the players are now working in different professions while Ronaldo is not happy with the overall condition of football. He then watches some boy who is trying to practice football tricks all on his own while on the other hand an interview of the scientist strengthen him for a mission to safeguard football (Aitchison, 2012). Therefore, he embarks on the mission and rescues the football players who are now working as barbers, mannequin, farmer, etc. The mission was to play a match against the clones with all their talent and power and the winning team will stay while the losing one will never play football for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, the football players use their talent and skills and attain victory. Ronaldo who scores a goal in the match is shown quite happy with the players and their victory while the entire world is also sharing the happiness on the return of these stars to the sports. However, despite of the countless efforts from the scientist, which includes fail-safe, etc., to outsmart the players the victory goes in favour of the players (Blythe, 2013). (Nike, 2014) Radio Alike, television commercials, Nike also broadcasted radio commercials on different radio channels in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. These Radio advertisements were specially made for this medium keeping in focus the message of the campaign. The campaign included only few radio ads as it majorly focused on television, print, online, and outdoor advertising (Nike, 2014). Print Alike the videos and the television advertisements, the Risk Everything campaign included a series of print and digital ads that were published in numerous newspapers, magazines, billboards, and other forums. Some of the print advertisements were screen shot of the television advertisement while many of them were made separately for the print medium. The underlying meaning and message of the print ads were the same and did not change (Fidelman, 2014). The famous print ads from the Risk Everything campaign are shown below. (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) (Nike, 2014) Internet The Winner Stays video was able to reach 65 million views within a month after its launch. Furthermore, an online question answer session was organized as part of the Risk Everything advertising campaign. Nike organized the session on The 9th of March 2014. The platform that was used for the session was Twitter. Twitter users were free to ask questions to the Paris Saint-German striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Anyone who wanted to ask questions to Zlatan can write their tweets with the hash tag of #DareToZlatan. There was another #askzlatan interactive campaign online. This campaign allowed the viewer to interact with the animated version of Zlatan Ibrahimovich and he responds to their queries in personalized short clips. This interactive campaign hit a mark of 10.5 million digital views. Furthermore, NikeFootball on Facebook also shared ‘The Last Game’ Facebook post. It is said to be one of the most shared Facebook posts to date (Blythe, 2013; L.G. & L.L., 2009). Reach and Success The reach and success of the campaign can be determined through the jaw dropping statistics that were presented by Nike. It is said that the campaign was able to generate a total of 372 million views through all the mediums. Nike further reported that the campaign turned to be their most popular social and mobile campaign with an engagement of twenty two million people to date. Furthermore, it is also observed that the online medium showed a total usage of 650,000 of the #riskeverything hash tag (Blythe, 2013; McGuire, 2012). It should be noted that more than 97 campaigns were created for the FIFA World Cup 2014 by 45 different brands. However, Nike, Risk Everything campaign was able to outcast the rest of the campaigns as it became the most viral one throughout the course of the tournament. The TV advertisement alone was able to gather a True Reach of 122.2 million views approx. the ad campaign has been on the frontline and mainstay on the Ad Age Viral Video Chart for more than five months. It is said that the ‘Risk Everything’ has become the second most watched campaign of 2014. The Last Game, which is also from the same campaign, came second and was able to gather a viewership of more than 97.1 million views (Nike, 2014; Fidelman, 2014). Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs Abraham Maslow proposed the psychology theory commonly known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in 1943. The theory was presented in his research paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ that was published in the Psychological Review. His theory was based on different ideas of self-actualization, esteem, safety, love, etc. The theory is still very popular in sociology and many psychologists utilize these theories in the present society (McGuire, 2012). It should be noted that in order to cater consumer needs and to accurately reach and influence them, advertisers should also follow some techniques that are based on the principles and approaches explained by Maslow. Therefore, it can be seen that advertisers at Wieden + Kennedy effectively took help of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the making of the Risk Everything campaign. They target the consumer audience in the effective manner by showing emotional content and engaging the players from almost every team that increased audience engagement as well (McGuire, 2012). The advertisers were aware of the fact that football is a game of passion and that a huge segment of society is attached to it, especially during the FIFA world cup era therefore they carefully designed the entire campaign keeping in mind the emotional appeal of their target audience. Furthermore, according to Maslow, there was an element of esteem in the campaign that was again utilized by the advertisers in the most effective manner. the Risk everything campaign aimed at risking everything because of the esteem and respect of the country and the hopes of their fans and their countrymen therefore this factor is also greatly witnessed in the campaign. Thus it can be said that the advertisers of Nike’ Risk Everything campaign used the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the most balanced manner and catered the target audience effectively while delivering their message at the same time (McGuire, 2012). Comparison with Adidas and other Brands Compared with other world cup campaigns then Nike’s Risk Everything campaign was the most viral and watched campaign throughout the world cup. As it has been aforementioned that among the 97 campaigns that were created for FIFA 2014, Nike’s Risk Everything was on top of the list. However, some other brands such as Samsung and Adidas were also able to make it to the top-5 list. Adidas’s ‘The Dream’ campaign had a true reach of 45,959,914 views while Samsung Galaxy 11’s ‘The Training’ was in third place with a true reach of 74,573,179 views (Blythe, 2013). Conclusion Thus, the above analysis of the Risk Everything campaign by Nike concludes that the entire campaign was subtle and glamorous while it conveyed the underlying message as well at the same time. The mantra of risking everything in the football field bagged attention of many and got victory over other campaigns. It is understood that the three football celebrities who are shown nervous yet confident in the football ground perfectly explains the spirit of true football. The statistics and results that are discussed in this paper clearly show how Weiden + Kennedy efficiently designed the entire ‘Risk Everything’ campaign and how the campaign was able to become one of the most watched campaigns of 2014. The message, the content, the theme, all the factors were rightly placed and shown in the campaign while it had a true emotional appeal for which it was able to become the number one ad campaign during the FIFA World Cup 2014. The campaign was designed, and targeted consumers for every medium including television, radio, print, outdoor, digital, internet, etc. It can be said that the Nike has always utilized the medium of advertising in the most suitable manner and Risk Everything is one fine example of that. List of References Aitchison, J., 2012. Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the Worlds Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century, New York: FT Press. Blythe, J., 2013. Consumer Behaviour: SAGE Publications, London: SAGE. Fidelman, M., 2014. Nike Is Dominating The World Cup - Heres Why. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 2014]. L.G., S. & L.L., K., 2009. Consumer Behaviour, New York: Prentice Hall. Lee, M. & Johnson, C., 2013. Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective, Second Edition, London: Routledge. McGuire, K. J., 2012. Maslows hierarchy of needs, Munchen: GRIN Verlag. Nike, 2014. Risk Everything. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 2014]. Read More