NULLA PUO FERMARCI (STOP AT NOTHING)

TitleNULLA PUO FERMARCI (STOP AT NOTHING)
BrandNIKE
Product/ServiceNIKE
Category C01. Use of Social/ Digital Platforms
Entrant ANALOGFOLK London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation ANALOGFOLK London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement MINDSHARE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production CANADA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company TIKTOK Los Angeles, USA
Additional Company 2 WIEDEN+KENNEDY London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Simon Richings AnalogFolk Executive Creative Director
Seth Jones AnalogFolk Creative Director
Gracie Hawes AnalogFolk Creative
Jacqueline Hedge AnalogFolk Creative
Thomas Scovell AnalogFolk Executive Strategy Director
Nick McWilliams AnalogFolk Strategist
Rob O'Shea AnalogFolk Client Partner
Rosie Gee-Summons AnalogFolk Project Manager
Natalie Dobbin AnalogFolk Associate Project Manager
Femke Huurdeman CANADA London Film Director
Davey Ahern CANADA London Producer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

To drive maximum participation and get young Milanese women applying their abilities to "sport" as we saw it, Nike needed to replicate the connection and fun they were finding in TikTok. We created a campaign for Nike that saw Nike’s Italian sports-heroines working in concert with Tik Tok megastars to choreograph sport-meets-dance routines. Three infectious, addictive dance routines were made up of sports moves and techniques and used by TikTok influencers to get their followers to join in. Then we watched as the challenges were viewed 20M+ times, 46.7k dance challenges were completed and Milan got moving again.

Background

Italy has a specific and significant problem with its perception of sportswomen. They are rarely seen or celebrated. When they are, they’re stereotyped, sexualised and objectified. So much so that football pundit Fulvio Collovati claimed on national TV that women cannot “speak about tactics” since a woman “doesn’t understand tactics like a man”. Yes, in 2019. In Milan – a key Nike city – 55% of women between 14 and 24 don’t do any sport at all. Why would they, when female sporting heroes are either invisible, objectified or vilified as unfeminine? Nike challenged us to get 150,000 young Milanese women moving by using social, in a way that would cement the brand’s status as the champion of women in sport – on every level. Nike wanted a campaign that would not only be talked about and engaged with, but would also create real-world action with far-reaching effects.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The music and video app TikTok has taken over the internet, surpassing all other downloads and acquiring more than 500 million active monthly users. It’s a phenomenon, encouraging users to post footage of themselves performing and often handing the baton to their followers to follow suit. In Milan, and across the globe, young women are embracing the app to learn complex dance routines and post their work. This campaign saw Italy’s biggest sporting heroines teaching four young women – Milan’s biggest TikTok superstars – key moves and techniques. Together, fully choreographed dance/sport hybrids were created and put out to the world via TikTok. Millions of followers watched the routines, and Milananes females responded with their own take. This campaign was about getting young Milanese woman to learn new sports, through the prism of their current social behaviours – dance challenges.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target audience is women aged 15 to 25 in Milan. In all studies (including our own), it was suggested this group spent the majority of their free time on their phone – but this wasn’t just passive scrolling. A new social currency had developed alongside the rise of TikTok. Young women were challenging one another to perform intricate dance routines. And they were taking up the challenge, in their thousands. We realised we'd been guilty of looking through the Nike lens of what "sport" meant, not what it meant to our audience. To get young women applying their abilities to "sport" as we saw it, Nike needed to tap into the spirit of fun and connection Milanese women were finding in TikTok dance routines.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In December, we identified three Milan-based TikTok influencers with a combined following of 11 million. The followers were all aged between 16 and 20, and known for posting the kind of dance challenges our audience loves. We paired each ‘Muser’ with a Nike elite athlete and watched the fireworks happen. In January, they worked together to co-create a dance based on each of their sports, choreographing routines that the influencers performed on their TikTok accounts, challenging their followers to do the same. We worked with TikTok to ensure that as well as being posted out to our influencers’ followers, all three challenges were hosted on TikTok’s first-ever campaign page and supported with in-platform ads, giving us the biggest

List the results (30% of vote)

We earned 100m+ views and 540k+ likes for the three challenges, with 20m+ #basketbeat views in just 36 hours. More than 46k user-generated routines were posted in response. Over 300 articles have been written about our campaign, for a readership of more than 600 million. That includes our athletes appearing on the cover of Corriere della Sera, one of the most conservative papers in Milan. Sky Sports – alongside numerous other news outlets – has aired features on our campaign. We started 150k+ specific conversations around our campaign and our athletes. We drove engagement on our owned channels, too – with NikePlus membership numbers growing and a quickly shrinking gender gap. Milan has become the fastest-growing city in Nike’s EMEA region, as more young women see ‘Nulla Puo Fermarci’ as a way into sport.