If you’re a big brand wondering how to harness the power of new (and old) media, here’s a great example and lesson from Nike, a new 30 sec spot to debut during the coverage of the Masters tournament.

In just 24 hours, Nike has already generated an amazing ~1.0MM views on YouTube (and countless other comments and chatter on the web) with this 30 sec image of Tiger Woods overlaid to a voice recording of his father.

This is a brilliant example of leaning into risk, by a perennial Challenger brand, Nike.

Most large brands with dominant positions in their marketplace would follow the conventional wisdom that it’s a bad idea to use Tiger Woods right now in any commercial endeavour, let alone an advertising endorsement. Just ask Gatorade, Accenture, Gillette and AT&T.

Not Nike. Instead of following the safe, conventional wisdom to steer clear of Tiger, Nike instead chose to lean into the risk with this new spot, and in doing so has gotten quite a lot of people talking — about the spot, about Tiger and yes, about Nike.

So why is Nike doing this? It seems for two reasons.

First, because there is a message — or better yet, a lesson — in this saga that fits with the Nike brand and is meaningful to all of us. Nike is all about achievement. We all know that to acheive better results, often one must first fail and then learn from those mistakes. That’s precisely what this spot challenges us all to do. Whether you can forgive Tiger for his transgressions or not isn’t the point – that message and lesson still is relevant to a lot of people.

Second, as a Challenger, Nike knows the value of expressing a strong POV in order to get people talking, because that’s how Challengers harness the power of perhaps the oldest medium of all time — word of mouth — to multiply their brand’s message.

In doing so, Nike understands that not everyone will agree with their POV or message. That’s ok. A challenger brand understands that the greatest danger in today’s world filled with an overwhelming number of media options and amount of information isn’t rejection — it’s indifference.

So if you’re a big brand looking to get your message to break through, perhaps there is something to be learned from Nike and their courage to lean into risk.

And if this new spot turns out to be a big disaster or failure for Nike, I’ll bet they learn something from the experience and will be better off for having done it — which after all, seems to be the point they are making.

One Response to “Nike — Leaning into Risk”

1. Nigel Ennes says: April 23, 2010 at 12:20 pm

   Thankyou, I didn’t knew this, much appreciated.