Earlier this week, global fashion brand Nike released an advert to celebrate their 30 year anniversary. The advert featured controversial American NFL star Colin Kaepernick and other sport stars . Since the release , the advert has taken over the internet, with celebrities and non-celebrities posting and sharing pictures of the advert.
The campaign, titled ‘Just Do It’, is a perfect example of effective emotional storytelling; a key component in Marketing Communications. Nike leveraged the feeling of ‘Redemption’ to tell an emotional story of bravery and gallantry with the sole aim of activating our minds to damn the consequences and stand for what’s right.
https://youtu.be/mreQsQrDF-A
After watching the visuals for the campaign for the third time, I discovered, that all of the sports stars mentioned came from a disadvantaged background, either economically, socially or physically. The advert was able to tap into the very core of our soul, because we could all relate to it. From the Influencers, to the message, to the feel and tone, the advert was emotionally connecting with us all the way.
Though, conservatives in America started a protest few hours after Kaepernick announced the advert on his twitter account, some even went as far as burning some of their Nike shoes; But, as communication practitioners, I believe that we can learn so much for this advert. The message ‘Just Do It’ is motivational, propelling you to take an action, the story around it appealed to our emotions, showing us people who defied the odds to be the best.
I have learnt a lot from this campaign, which has been viewed by over 500,000 people on Youtube in the last 24 hours, everyone can agree that ‘storytelling’ has been the buzzword for a minute now, but, are you telling the right stories?, Can your target audience relate to your story?, Are your influencers communicating your story the right way?
Here are some comments:
These comments shows the impact of the advert. Deep, emotional and motivational.
A lot of celebrities have since celebrated Kaepernick’s resilience.
50 Cent
Charlamagne Tha God
On Twitter, the advert has sparked conversations with many people tweeting their own version; some of the more interesting ones are:
This campaign should be in the Hall of Fame.