NIKE
RISK EVERYTHING
Brief
As some of the world’s greatest athletes took center stage, football fans around the world would be watching live in record numbers. In partnership with Google’s Art, Copy & Code project, Nike wanted to reach and engage a global audience during the 2015 World Cup, ultimately tapping into the energy of watching the event live and giving people something to talk about.
Nike’s Phenomenal Shot shows the world’s greatest players in moments of unpredictable brilliance. Fans can capture, remix and share their own perfect shot–all in an immersive 3-D experience that uses new real-time ad delivery technology.
What I did
- Creative direction
- Experience direction
- Visual development
- Art direction
Awards & Mentions
- Webbys – Integrated
- One Show – Cross platform
- Cannes Lions – Titanium
- Cannes Lions – Integrated
Client
NIKE
Wieden+Kennedy
Type
Mobile/Desktop
Browser Experience
Year
2014
Read more
VIDEO
Phenomenal Shot shows Nike’s greatest athletes in moments of unpredictable brilliance. Just seconds after a Nike athlete had a big play on TV, we immortalized the moment and served it across Google’s global ad network for users to participate, remix, and share. The most celebrated moments were captured at the height of the conversation, letting fans have their own unique take on the frozen moment in time.
On this fun project I designed the overall look and also the customized pipeline to get posed 3D characters from renowned animation studio Passion Pictures over to our WebGL engine, and lighting design and texture setups for the final look of the experience.
CHALLENGE
Nike is constantly looking for ways to deepen engagement with sports fans globally. Together, we set out to tap into the real-time energy of live sports and explore how Google’s ad technology can deliver more engaging experiences across the web and mobile, right when it matters most.
SOLUTION
Through a specially designed, real-time delivery tool, immersive 3-D display ads appeared across the desktop and mobile sites and apps in the Google Display Network within seconds of an event happening on TV. The creative was customized based on the Nike athlete’s phenomenal play happening on TV.
Phenomenal Shot is optimized for a rich mobile experience. HTML5 and JavaScript work together with the phone’s gyroscope and compass data to determine the athlete’s position in 3-D space. Fans can span 360° around a Nike athlete by tilting and panning their mobile device. The entire WebGL experience happens within the mobile browser, without the need to download an app.
Working with Nike was an amazing opportunity and put huge expectations on my team.
A pipeline was created where after a particularly spectacular goal was scored in the World Cup, the scene would be re-created in 3D and exported to our custom WebGL creation tool where the user could customize the scene of the goal and share it with their friends.
The biggest challenge we overcame was maintaining the speed at which assets could be collected from the international team of creative agencies, put into our creation tool and delivered to users as fast as we possibly could while at the same time maintaining the quality expected from a client like Nike.
RESULTS
Nike Phenomenal Shot was an integral part of the huge Risk Everything campaign created by Wieden+Kennedy. Google and Nike partnered to tap into the real-time energy of the exciting world cup, experimenting with Google’s ad technology to deliver more engaging experiences across the web, right when it matters most.
We delivered real-time ads that invited fans to celebrate, remix and share memorable sports moments just seconds after they happened in the Risk Everything style.
Through a specially designed, real-time delivery tool, these ads appeared across the sites and apps in the Google Display Network in 15 countries.
Through a specially designed, real-time delivery tool, these ads appeared across the sites and apps in the Google Display Network in 15 countries.
For example, when Brazil’s Neymar Jr. scored a goal in the Cameroon match on June 23rd, Nike ads featuring Neymar Jr. in his goal celebration pose ran within ten seconds.
Our cross-platform experience pushed the boundaries of mobile devices. Fans could span 360-degrees around a 3D version of Neymar Jr. by tilting and panning their phone. They used headlines, filters and stickers to create their own digital poster celebrating Neymar Jr.’s phenomenal moment.
The entire WebGL experience happens within the mobile browser without the need to download or open an app.
Extract
- 200 countries
- 10-second turnaround time
- 2 million engagements
TEAM CREDITS
Creative lead: Magnus Östergren
Tech lead: Rickard Herlitz
Coding: Stefan Hedman
Lead art: Joakim Areschoug
WebGL: Nils Friberg
2D retouch: Robin Portnoff
Characters: Passion Pictures
