Ambushing Adidas: Nike’s ‘Risk Everything’ Campaign

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Excerpts....

In the initial days after it was founded, Nike relied on conventional marketing strategies for promoting its products. Nike’s own staff took care of all its advertising activities; the company did not even use the services of an advertising agency till the year 1976. Other than the print ads, Nike also focused on sponsorships and celebrity endorsements of its products before 1982. In the year 1982, Nike hired the services of an advertising agency called Wieden+Kennedy (Wieden) for the first time in its history. After partnering with Wieden, Nike started airing television ads of its products. It also started emphasizing the technical superiority of its products and positioned itself as a brand for serious athletes. Apart from merely highlighting the technical superiority of its products, Nike also started to promote them as fashion accessories for the young customers.

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Nike had been a global leader in the sporting market for a long time. However, it was never a major player in the soccer market due to differences within the company on whether to focus exclusively on soccer or pursue the overall sporting market. For the first time in its history, Nike started to show interest in football during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in America..........

Following its tradition of utilizing global sporting events to promote its brand, Nike launched a major advertising campaign during the 2014 FIFA World Cup to expand the reach of its products. The 2014 FIFA World Cup was held in Brazil − a big market for sporting goods and a country where soccer was one of the most loved sports. With a new advertising campaign targeted at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Nike wanted to increase the global reach of its brand and make Brazil its third biggest market in the world after USA and China.........

As in the case of all Nike’s previous campaigns focusing on social networks, the Risk Everything campaign was also a huge success and helped in increasing the company’s sales and brand image. Forty five global brands released a total of ninety seven campaigns during the FIFA World Cup 2014. Nike’s Risk Everything Campaign stood as the best campaign with the highest viewership for any brand. The campaign generated 6 billion impressions across the social and conventional media channels like TV, gaming, mobile, and out-of-home media........

According to analysts, both Adidas and Nike had succeeded in leveraging on the interest around the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but Nike managed to do it without spending millions of dollars on the official sponsorship of the event. Research also proved that consumers might not be able to distinguish between the official sponsors and other advertisers in a well-executed ambush marketing campaign........

LOOKING AHEAD The success of ambush marketing campaigns like Nike’s ‘Risk Everything’ made some industry experts question the viability of the current exclusive sponsorship model for major sporting events. Experts opined that Adidas should start focusing on creating more of a buzz around its brand rather than just spending more money on sponsorships of sporting events.........

Exhibit I:Summary Income Statement of Nike (Figures in thousands)
Exhibit II: 3D Skull Images for Nike Risk Everything World Cup Competitions
Exhibit III:Top 25 Campaign Videos of the 2014 FIFA World Cup
Exhibit IV: Share Price of Nike from January to October 2014
Exhibit V: List of Official Protected Terms Issued for FIFA
Exhibit IV: Rank of Nike and Adidas Brands from 2007 to 2014