Nike’s Dream Crazy advertisement -New horizons agency

This semester one of the courses in the department of communication media and culture was the ‘Introduction to advertising and public relations’. Our University professor assigned us to create a advertising agency in order to fulfill the future projects in this course. We decided to name our agency New Horizons because we wanted to innovate in the advertising industry. One of our fist projects was to to choose from the Cannes Lion 2019 winners one campaign of our preference and to create a power point presentation. Because all members of our team love sports and social statements from athletes we picked Nike’s advertisement Dream Crazy with Colin kaepernick.For this project we did a lot of research online in order to find information about this advertisement and the truth is that we found a lot of online resources.

The first thing that we searched for was who is Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick was a professional NFl athlete that he refused to stand during the national anthem in 2016 because of his views on the country’s treatment of racial minorities. As a result he got fired and until today he is a free agent. Nike selected him to become the person of its campaign because a as brand wants to take a stand at sociopolitical issues.

Then we searched about the purpose of this campaign. This tvspot contains many people that they had to overcome difficulties in their lives and they are successful athletes in various sports . The most meaningful quote is said by the narrator of the advertisement Colin Caepernick which is “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” The goals of this advertisement are firstly to Celebrate the greatest athletes (despite their color, race or obstacles), secondly to encourage people to set goals despite the obstacles and Nike wants to bring attention to shift sentiment on controversial issues (racial injustice).

Something else very important for every advertisement is the target audience in Nike’s Dream Crazy .The main audience are people who feel under representative and to millennials and Generation Z people (15–25) who are described as activists consumers. NIKE chose this specific audience because they are more familiar with social differences and diversity, not only from social media but also from the society itself. Also other audience groups that this advertisment is aiming to liberals, minorities and women.

Then we had to identified what campaign is it for example is it local, international etc. We found that This campaign is international because it presents different human stories with a wide variety of cultures. Nike publiced its campaign through social media in order to attract the global society. The type of the advertisment is international as it uses many multi-cultural athletes in order to raise awareness about cultural differences. Many famous and dissimilar athletes were used such as Lebron James, Zeina Nassar, Serena Williams etc.

Then we had to identified what campaign is it for example is it local, international etc. We found that This campaign is international because it presents different human stories with a wide variety of cultures. Nike publiced its campaign through social media in order to attract the global society. The type of the advertisment is international as it uses many multi-cultural athletes in order to raise awareness about cultural differences. Many famous and dissimilar athletes were used such as Lebron James, Zeina Nassar, Serena Williams etc.

Then we had to present the main key messages of this advertisement .After a deep research we managed to summarize the main messages in a few words such as Equality Respect to dissimilarity,social awareness, inspiration, motivation , encouragement to take a stand on social issues.

Each advertisemt has an impact in the public this specific had at the end a positive impact According to reports and stats, the advertisement caused controversy and many people even burned Nike’s products. On the other hand , there were also many supporters, the sales were increased so did the views on Nike’s social media made the advertisement one of the greatest in Nike’s history. A debate came up concerning dream crazy and if is appropriate for a brand to take a stand on social issues. In the end this advertisment became one of the most controversial and successful in Nike’s history .

The last thing that we had to search was if it was a good story.Undoubtedly Nike’s story was successful as many athletes who were shown had their type of story,where they managed to overcome their problems and in this way they motivate people to be occupated with social issues. It is a clever move as people would love the brand name of the company and sports in general. In a marketer’s view it was a good story as the sales were raised and had a great outcome as it created a huge discussion among society.

New Horizons agency members Nikos Kaskampas Dimitris Margaritis Apostolis Sifonas Constantinos Christodoulides and I Aggelos Konstantinidis

Professor Betty Tsakarestou