NIKE BASKETBALL | BRING YOUR GAME "TOO MANY GREAT PLAYERS"

Nike Basketball had been absolutely dominate in the basketball category. For years, no one has been able to hold a candle to Nike Basketball or any of its athletes. But things were changing. KD was hurt. Kobe was retiring. And people were experiencing LeBron fatigue. Along with those unfortunate events, Stephen Curry and Under Armour were making noise in the league and on sneaker shop shelves. In the media, everyone was pitting LeBron against Steph Curry and beginning to call for the downfall of the Nike Basketball dynasty. With this changing landscape, Nike Basketball found itself in a unique position and a great opportunity to do something different. It was time to mix things up, aim higher and think bigger. 

With this challenge amongst us, we set out to create a unique and unified voice for Nike Basketball that lasted the entire year. The hope was to go beyond performance to reestablish our connection with the culture of the game. In doing so, this unified voice allowed Nike Basketball to leverage our strengths to authentically speak to the heart of basketball and connect with our audience as only Nike Basketball can. While every other brand was talking about their individual athletes, we were going to talk about our entire roster and why people everyone loved them and the game. To do so, we had to root ourselves in a truth about the game. 

Basketball was evolving. The culture of basketball was no longer built on being the best. Defining what’s next is what drove this culture on and off the court. Every player, from our target to the next generation of NBA players, was looking to define the game with their own vision. No basketball player wanted to fit into the mold of another basketball player. Every player everywhere was imagining the game in their own light. There was no blueprint for basketball. 

With this campaign, by highlighting the style of Nike Basketball’s athletes, we aimed to show our target that the future of the game was built on bringing their own flavor. We wanted real hoops. We wanted originality with the ball. We wanted our favorite players trash talking with emojis and performing complicated daps. We wanted players to look at their games and look again and check their style and check one more time. And if they’re not somebody’s favorite, they needed to fix that. We wanted hoops, and there was only one way they were going to give them to us. They had to bring their game.