Nike Crazy Dreams wins Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix | WARC | The Feed

Nike Crazy Dreams wins Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix

Nike and longstanding creative agency partner Wieden + Kennedy Portland have won the top prize at the Creative Effectiveness Lions, announced at Cannes Lions Live 2021.

Why it matters

The conversation surrounding brand purpose had been waiting for a campaign that showed what it looked like to be brave, pick a side in a very real battle for racial equality in the US, and for that bet to lead to business success and global impact. You can’t please everybody, but Nike understood whose side it stood on – that of its athletes and young, diverse customers.

Details

• The campaign, which launched in 2019 amid a febrile political atmosphere, saw the sportswear juggernaut find a new angle to the self-assurance of its ‘Just Do It’ motto for the 30^th anniversary of the line.
• This was voiced and fronted by the American football player Colin Kaepernick, who shot to international fame following his protest at police brutality which influenced the symbolism of the modern movement for racial equality. 
• The campaign started with a tweet from Kaepernick, before Nike launched a two-minute film during the opening of the NFL season, encouraging a new generation of athletes to ‘dream crazy’ by celebrating athletes who had bucked convention and pushed their sports forward.
  
• It worked. The winning paper, which WARC subscribers can read alongside all the winners and shortlisted entries, reveals sales, purchase intent, and stock price increases as a result of the work.