NIKE: Believe a Beijinger
Client: NIKE
2019
🎯 Challenge
Beijing is a hoops city, but ballers there were starting to lose their motivation and drive to push themselves. We had to ignite the competitive spirit in athletes across Beijing, and ballers in particular.
💡 Insight
People in Beijing are known for their big talk, and athletes are no exception, so we went to investigate further. Through research with basketball players and other athletes, we found out that there was a divide. While some dedicated athletes would live up to their brags with action on the court, a lot of guys and girls weren’t backing up their claims with game.
🚀 Solution
Show how the real athletes back up their big talk with game.
The Work
We launched a campaign called ‘Believe a Beijinger’, which encouraged all athletes in Beijing to back up their big talk with game. The Chinese line 甭信我 服我 (lit. ‘if you don’t believe me, I’ll show you anyway) was full of Beijing attitude and dialect, which gave the message an extra local punch.
We developed four vignettes to launch the POV, which featured different sport categories, including basketball, football, and running.
Finally, we created the Beijing 99, a local basketball tournament that gave Beijing’s ballers a chance to live up to their big talk by proving it on the court in front of the entire city’s basketball community.
Believe a Beijinger Vignettes
Each of the vignettes showed athletes dealing with the different consequences of big talk coming true. For example, one guy has to eat a basketball after promising his friend that he would on the condition he beat him one-on-one without letting him score once.
Beijing 99
We developed 99 unique jerseys based on the military and political ranking system of the Ming and Qing dyansties. Numbered from 1 to 99, these jerseys indicated your rank amongst the tough competition of Beijing basketball.
The rules were simple. To get a jersey, you challenge the owner. Winner takes jersey. Over the course of a several weekends, only the city’s best were left standing with a jersey on their back.
Beijing 99 Teaser and campaign wrap video with results below:
