NIKE Advertising and “Quantifying” Creative

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Nike Ad

I will eventually talk about social media. And talk about “quantifying” creative. But first, I’m going to force you to watch a really cool commercial. It’s about soccer football, but it’s cool anyway.

I have this idea for an add on to this commercial. Someone call Wieden + Kennedy.

Landon Donovan* steals a pass, jives and jukes his way through eight (!!) defenders and rockets a goal past the outstretched arms of the Brazillian goalie. (Who probably has just one name.)

Donovan and the U.S. team celebrate! Fireworks! We see a Jumbo-tron replay that say “Donovan scores first hat-trick since 1966!”** Ticker tape falls all over the pitch (that’s what British people and Oregonians call the soccer field).

Cut (with a jet sound fx) to Landon Donovan hopping off a private jet!

Cue the disco beats, with Donovan strutting to the door of a thumpin’ Miami night club! The bouncer turns, and with recognition, open the velvet rope. And as Donovan strolls in, the bouncer grabs him, waves as Gary Coleman     Brett Michaels Verne Troyer walks in.

Quick cut. Donovan still standing outside, jabbing angrily at guest list. He keeps holding up 3 fingers. The bouncer is ignoring him.

Quick cut again, we see California plates that say “2010 3X”. The car drives off, and it’s a 1999 Honda Civic with duct tape over one light.

OK, I promised that I’d attempt to loop this back to work, so here goes:

Shortly after the 2002 World Cup, I went to a Portland Ad Federation event where two guys from Wieden + Kennedy talked about NIKE wanting them to quantify their creative.

So how do you put a number to creative?

W+K apparently polled ad execs from other agencies and asked them to, based on the TV they watch, estimate the amount of their media buy for their current campaign.

The average was 10x more than their actual media buy. Their creative was so good that professional ad people who deal in media budgets remembered seeing it more than they actually saw it. Their creative was so good people talked about it all the time.

Hell, I still remember that 2002 World Cup ad by Terry Gilliam. It was BRILLIANT.

Which brings me back to the NIKE spot for the 2010 World Cup. It went live May 21. That first day, all they did was put it on YouTube. No support. No air time. No social media talk. No Facebook campaign (yet).

It had 4 million views within 24 hours. Total pass around. All word of mouth. All because of their creative.

* He’s a soccer player for the U.S. But let’s face it, I could name him Engelbert Humperdink and you wouldn’t know the difference.

** Some Englishman named Geoff Hurst scored 3 goals as the UK beat West Germany for the World Cup final in Wembley Stadium. Apparently that’s a big deal, as I think he’s now a knight. Wow, holy crap I didn’t even make that up.