For the coming season, Nike is delivering its biggest NFL marketing campaign since regaining on-field rights in 2012.
It’s a multiplatform effort featuring fashion and entertainment names, NFL hall of famers and current stars. The tagline, designed to highlight the importance of an NFL jersey as a social and cultural totem, is “Who You With.”
Even with a focus on jerseys, Marc Reeves, Nike senior director of brand and head of marketing for NFL and NCAA, described the effort as more of a brand campaign than an effort designed to push specific product sales.
“This is a broad-reaching brand campaign employing NFL assets rather than an NFL-specific campaign,” Reeves said. “We’re using the NFL to drive the Nike brand forward and attract not just those who are watching the NFL, but goes more cross culturally and takes us beyond the field of play. This definitely skews more young and urban than what we have done before with the NFL.”
The campaign pairs NFL stars with cultural influencers in an attempt to make that “off-the-field” move. Thus Odell Beckham Jr. is shown wearing a Lawrence Taylor jersey, Joe Namath is with BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, Jamal Anderson with rappers EarthGang, hip-hop artist Schoolboy Q with Jerry Rice, designer Joe Fresh Goods with Gale Sayers, and collage artist Alexis Mackenzie with LaDainian Tomlinson.
The campaign, crafted in-house and with Wieden & Kennedy, will break in early September, with iterations across TV, digital, social, print and outdoor.
“Who You With” also will be supported by event marketing; pop-up boutiques in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and San Francisco, with designers offering jersey customization; and limited-run jerseys.
Nike backs its NFL league rights with sponsorships at 18 of the league’s 32 teams.
