I love Nike's Find Your Greatness campaign. Nike's marketing has been so consistently good that it is tempting sometimes to forget how hard it is to do. I enjoy the campaign as a human watching powerful storytelling, but I appreciate it even more as a marketer. It is elegantly based on a guiding customer insight and rooted in a clear rational and emotional brand purpose. Nike's Olympic 2012 work stands out from the other athlete ads. Nicely done, Weiden + Kennedy.
Samples of the campaign. You can find all of the creative here:
Nike's Current Brand Mission:
Allegedly this was an earlier version of Nike's brand mission. Oriented to the company, not the customer. Very rational driving to shareholder results. Doesn't talk to Nike's DNA of innovation. I typed it into Power Point to reinforce my point:
For newer marketers and brand builders, I wouldn't get confused by brand mantras, missions, ideas, promises, or visions if you are trying to find a simple way to inspire those around you to do great work. Focus the most energy on simplifying the outcome. It takes so much discipline and bravery. The hardest part is finding the customer truth that ties to your brand and fighting for it. But I believe the best brands and the tactics behind them are born from that guiding insight and their "why", not just "what" they do. I have written about this before in Why Great Brands Are Like Great Leaders.
For fun, here are other brand advertisers (for packaged goods and food) that used the context of the Olympics to promote their products. It makes the Nike work even more remarkable and truly authentic.
Source of the Nike mission statements: BBH Labs.
