NIKE RIO OLYMPICS | "UNLIMITED"

There’s no greater stage and no bigger moment than the Olympics. As 2016 unfolded, Nike was the clear global sports brand leader, with a 2015 brand revenue of $28.7 billion. Nike vastly outsized its nearest rival Adidas’s $13.9 billion brand revenue in 2015 and Under Armour’s 2015 global revenue of $3.96 billion. But despite their much lower business revenues, both brands were keen to make a big impact in 2016, especially during the Games. Along with that competition, there were other non-sports brand jockeying for the Olympic viewers’ attention. 

In the face of this increased pressure, the key strategic challenge was to ensure Nike was the most relevant of all these brands (both direct and indirect competitors) during humanity’s single biggest sports moment. The pressure of this challenge meant we needed to develop an idea and campaign that would resonate powerfully with our audience around the world. In short, we had to up the ante for sports brand communications and do it in a way that would transcend sports and resonate with people everywhere.

The  strategic platform was simple: Inspire all athletes to believe their potential has no limit. We expressed our big strategic idea with a simple creative expression: Unlimited. At the heart of Unlimited was our belief in telling diverse stories that show how athletes of all levels can go beyond whatever they thought their limits were. Through a deep understanding of athletes and sport, this campaign reasserted Nike’s relevance and leadership in the face of surging competition leading up to and during the Rio Olympics. Evolving over multiple months leading toward and throughout the Rio Olympics, we were able to represent both athletic diversity (different sports, different levels of ability—from the elite to the beginner) and cultural diversity (age, gender identity, race, ability). By inspiring athletes and people to reimagine their limits, Nike was able to connect in a more relevant way than both direct sports brand competitors and other indirect competitors.