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Nike Football revenue had grown from $40 million in 1994 to more than $1 billion in 2008. In just under 15 years, it had reached a sales level that took some of its competitors over 50 years to achieve.
Although not the end goal, the 2010 World Cup was another unique moment in time for Nike to create separation between the company and its competitors. Edwards knew he had to seize this opportunity and pull his team together to deliver a campaign focused on delivering innovative products and compelling consumer experiences. Creating deep consumer connections during the
World Cup would be vital for fueling continued growth for Nike football in the years ahead.

Football and the FIFA World Cup
Some people believe football is a matter of life and death . . . I assure you, it is much more serious than that.
— Bill Shankly, Scottish footballer and legendary Liverpool Manager1
Football was a game played between two teams of 11 players each, 10 field players and a goalkeeper per team. The game lasted 90 minutes, consisting of two 45-minute halves of running time. It was played with a round ball, on a rectangular grass field (often referred to as the “pitch”) with a goal on either end. Excluding the goalkeeper, the ball was controlled only with the feet, legs, torso and head (the use of hands or arms was prohibited) and the team scoring the most goals by the end of the game was the winner.
Football was the most popular sport in the world, by both viewership and participation, and was continuing to grow. In 2006, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing body for football, estimated that 265 million people worldwide played football, up from 242 million in 2000.2 Professional leagues existed throughout the world, though the top talent and most popular clubs were in Western Europe, concentrated in England, Spain, Italy,
Germany and France. Since the early 1990’s professional team rosters in Western Europe had become increasingly globalized, with stars from South America, Africa and Asia playing in the top leagues.
The World Cup, FIFA’s flagship event, was a tournament between 32 qualifying nations held once every four years. The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay. In 2006 the World Cup was held in Germany and drew a cumulative TV viewership of 26.29 billion over the course of the event.3 It was estimated that nearly half the planet, approximately 3 billion people, watched the 2006 World
Cup final.4 The World Cup was the culminating event for national teams, players, fans and sponsors and it was the most watched sporting event in the world.

Nike Company History5
After their first meeting in 1957, Nike co-Founders Phil Knight, a University of Oregon track athlete, and Bill Bowerman, renowned University of Oregon and Olympic Track and Field coach, formed Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), a precursor to Nike, in 1962. The company worked with Japanese shoe manufacturer Onitsuka as a US footwear distributor for Tiger shoes, selling merchandise from the back of cars at various track meets. In 1971 the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka went sour. At the same time, Knight and Bowerman were ready to make the leap from only distributing shoes to designing and manufacturing their own brand of athletic footwear. In 1972 the company changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory, and began using the “swoosh” logo which they paid $35 to have designed. Bowerman developed one of Nike’s most iconic innovations – the waffle outsole (created using his wife’s waffle iron), a lightweight cushioned outsole offering outstanding traction. With a new name, new logo and design innovation, all that Nike was missing
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was an athlete to endorse the line. Shortly after, Nike signed its first of many big name athletes: Steve
Prefontaine, a local University of Oregon track athlete who, in 1975, held every U.S. track record from the 2,000 meters to the 10,000 meters, and the two mile to the six mile race.6
By 1979, Nike had captured 50% of the U.S. running shoe market and went public in 1980. Nike expanded into sports outside of running, including basketball—with the first Air Jordan’s, a shoe designed for basketball star Michael Jordan—in 1985, and cross training in 1987. The company expanded into apparel in 1986, and expanded into non-sporting shoes in 1988, with the acquisition of
Cole Haan. That same year Nike unveiled their “Just Do It” marketing campaign that, along with the iconic swoosh, helped define the brand in the coming years. By 1990 Nike was the leader in sports shoes and apparel, and dominated running, basketball, tennis and cross-training. In 1995 Nike moved into ice hockey with the purchase of Canstar Sports. In 1996, Nike golf landed a vastly talented but as-yet unproven golfer named Eldrick “Tiger” Woods. Nike also began investing in the sport of cycling, including in a promising young cyclist who appeared to be on his way to success, until he was diagnosed with cancer. He lost most of his sponsors, but Nike stood by him. In 1999, Lance
Armstrong’s incredible comeback resulted in what would be the first of seven consecutive Tour de
France titles. Over the years Nike continued to expand and diversify its brand portfolio, acquiring
Hurley in 2002, Converse in 2003 and Umbro in 2007.
Throughout its history Nike developed a range of shoe technology innovations: waffle outsoles, the first soles with small rubber spikes; Nike Air, the first shoe to feature air sole cushioning or bags of pressurized gas that compressed under impact; Nike Air Max, the first shoe that allowed athletes to see the air cushioning, also known as “visible air”; and Nike Shox, a shoe line that featured materials from engine mounts on race cars and provided stable, spring-like resistance for runners.
Nike aimed to have its marketing mimic its products as authentic and innovative, often daring and at times groundbreaking.7 The company was known for its big ticket endorsements of leading and upcoming athletes, even investing significant sums in athletes before they had performed at the highest level. In 2008 Nike had an estimated marketing budget of $2 billion dollars,8 an estimated
$260 million of which went to sponsorships of teams and athletes.9 Nike’s top athletes through the years included basketball stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods, tennis star
John McEnroe, cyclist Lance Armstrong, and footballer Ronaldo. (See Exhibit 1 for examples of Nike sponsored athletes.) Nike was the first marketer to license a Beatles’ song for an ad, the first to use an
HIV positive person as a role model and one of the first to celebrate women’s role in sport.

NIKE 2009
By 2009 Nike was the top manufacturer of athletic apparel and footwear. Its operations scaled across designing, manufacturing and selling footwear, apparel, and equipment. (See Exhibit 2 for examples of Nike brand categories.) It maintained 23,000 retail accounts across the globe through which Nike products were sold. In addition, the company operated 690 of its own stores, which included NikeTown, Nike retail outlets and Nike women shops, also sold directly online. The company sold upscale shoes at Cole-Haan stores. (See Exhibit 3 for Nike Inc. selected financials.)
Footwear product innovation Nike invested significant amounts of time and money into researching, testing and tinkering new footwear designs to ensure that the product delivered performance-based innovation to the consumer. Tony Bignell, footwear category director, noted, “the process is dynamic, fluid and evolving. Nothing ever stops; we just keep learning and innovating.”
Footwear development had four major sectors: the product development team, which conceptualized ideas and market opportunities; the design team, which brought technical, aesthetic and industrial
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design expertise; and the product marketing team which worked to understand how to frame the product for release to a broad market. The fourth sector was the athletes who tested, commented on and eventually wore the product.
Mark Parker, Nike’s CEO, highlighted Nike’s commitment to collaborating with big name athletes, “Always, always, the elite athlete still leads our design. What we learn from them is who we are.”10 Basketball star Kobe Bryant, shared Parker’s vision, “When you’re talking about shoes, I start thinking about the collaboration [with Nike] from a performance angle. You know, I’m cutting changing directions, jumping. Performance is priority No.1.”11 The product design, development and marketing teams traveled to visit players and teams and listen to feedback on past products, desires for new products and changes in the game. Simultaneously, Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL), considered one of the top sports science research labs in the world, used the feedback received from players and coaches to design scientific experiments to help understand how potential footwear technologies could help athletes perform better. The design team also incorporated unique and eyecatching aesthetics into the high-performance designs, an aspect that Parker felt had given Nike athletes a psychological advantage since Nike’s earliest days “It’s what people wanted then—to feel like they were special. And that’s grown into a whole global culture.”12
Sustainability Nike suffered reputational damage in the early 1990’s due to accusations of poor working conditions in factories in developing countries. As a result, and recognizing changing business conditions that put pressure on natural resources, Nike embarked on a journey toward sustainability and corporate responsibility. Hannah Jones, vice president of sustainable business and innovation, explained, “At first our efforts were risk management driven, to avoid liability and bad press, but as we put our roots in the ground we began thinking about sustainability as an opportunity for growth. If you invest in good working conditions you reap efficiencies, innovations and new products. If you use resources efficiently you see a bottom line savings.”
Nike had a number of long term sustainability goals, focused on reducing natural resource use and carbon footprint. Jones elaborated, “In order to thrive in the sustainable economy of the future we are going to need to find a way to decouple our use of natural resources from our work. Our 2050 vision of the company is: to have a 100% renewable energy footprint, with net zero waste, net zero water usage, 0% carbon footprint and 100% youth access to sport.” In order for sustainable options to have a more pervasive influence on Nike’s product design, Jones helped create the Considered Index, a software program that showed designers the environmental impact of their choices in real-time.
This enabled the designer to make informed decisions on how to reduce environmental impact while maintaining the highest level of quality, durability and performance.

Competitors
The sports apparel and footwear industry in 2009 was highly competitive between a small number of global companies that dominated the market, including Nike, Adidas, Puma and New Balance.
(See Exhibit 4 for Adidas and Puma selected financials.) The production of apparel and footwear was largely labor intensive and therefore manufacturing had moved almost exclusively to countries with low labor costs.13 The industry itself had consolidated, with large mergers including Adidas’s purchase of Reebok in 2007 and Nike’s acquisition of Umbro in 2008.
Adidas, the second largest sports apparel and footwear company in the world as of 2009, was founded by Adi Dassler after a split from his brother, Rudi, who would go on to found Puma.14
Adidas’ football and World Cup roots ran deep; in 1954 it was Dassler’s uniquely designed screw–in studs that provided better stability and traction on a wet, muddy field, and as legend goes helped the
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German national team beat Hungary in that year’s World Cup final.15 From there, football fueled the growth of the company that held a dominant position in sports apparel until Nike was founded in the
1970’s. Adidas competed with Nike in every category and also sponsored star athletes and sports teams.16 Adidas was the number two brand in most markets. Their marketing activities included a growing emphasis on digital media, releasing videos online, and an active presence on social networks.17 However, Adidas showed firm commitment to traditional sponsorship activities as well, investing to become the official sponsor of the National Football League (NFL) (2002-2012), National
Basketball Association (NBA) (2006-2017), Major League Soccer (MLS) (2005-2018) and the 2010
World Cup in South Africa.18

Nike Football History19
Manufactured in 1971 and retailed for $16.95, “The Nike,” the first shoe to bear the Nike swoosh, was a football boot. The boot was sold exclusively in the U.S. and was used by football, American football and lacrosse athletes. Over the next 23 years, Nike continued to develop cleats but knowledge at Nike around football was limited; “They didn’t have football under their skin. It was a complete lack of knowledge of anything to do with the history, heritage, the structure of the game,” reflected one Nike employee.20
By 1994 Nike Football was only a $40 million business, still a minor presence in the global football market compared to powerhouse Adidas. Sandy Boedecker, former director of Nike Football commented, “We meant absolutely nothing in the sport to anybody.” But there was an emerging view within the company that the situation had to change drastically. Edwards recounted a primary impetus behind expanding Nike Football: “As a company, we were really looking to grow our brand internationally, and when you have a sport like football, which is the most globally watched and participated-in sport, it was really important that we be successful.”

World Cup 1994 United States
In the summer of 1994, the U.S. hosted its first World Cup, which offered Nike an opportunity to grow its presence in football internationally. While the company did develop a new soccer boot, the
Tiempo Premier, it was unable to secure any team sponsorships for the 1994 World Cup.a However, luckily the finals pitted Italy against Brazil and because of individual Nike sponsorships with members of the Brazilian team, as well as with Italian footballer Paulo Maldini, Nike Tiempo Premier cleats were worn by 10 of the 22 starting players in the final broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers around the globe. Adidas cleats, at the time the most popular in football, were not worn by any players on the pitch during the final match.
Two days after the 1994 World Cup final, having watched the Brazilian national team captivate the world with its style of play and overtime victory over the Italians, then-CEO Phil Knight committed to partnering with the Brazilian National team. Weeks later, an entirely new Nike Football department was created, with new strategic management put in place. The division settled on its main goal: to deliver innovative high-performance football products to the consumer. In order to reach that goal, Nike Football adopted two guiding principles: first, to create a new culture for football and second, to see the world through the eyes of a 13-year-old football player/fan, their a Sponsoring a team in the World Cup meant providing the team with their kit (which included jerseys, shorts and socks) and

gave the sponsoring firm an opportunity to work with the team in marketing efforts, as agreed to in the contract. However, individual players were still free to wear boots of their own choosing from any company. Star players, typically individually sponsored by a company, were provided boots by that company and were featured in that company’s ads and marketing.

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target market. The first principle recognized that although football was tremendously popular globally, boots, balls and uniform design had remained relatively stagnant for many years and Nike
Football saw an opportunity to create new products. The second principle aimed to build that culture with the younger people playing and enjoying the sport. Traditionalists might push back against change in the game and be wedded to the Adidas brand. Nike believed young consumers presented an opportunity that could be captured with exciting, progressive products and marketing efforts.
Nike was able to sign the Brazilian national team to a sponsorship deal in 1996. Edwards reflected:
We saw signing Brazil as a way of communicating to, and connecting with, football consumers, particularly those who had a passion for a more creative, more free-flowing and more fun-loving style of football play. When we spoke to fans around the world, no matter which country we went to, Brazil was their second-favorite team. Once England was out, everyone in England loved Brazil, once Holland was out everyone in Holland loved Brazil.
This was because of the Brazilian’s style of play; it’s creative, and their spirit is creative. Every single day on every street corner in Brazil you see young people playing this incredibly creative type of football. If we could connect with the younger fans who were seeing this shift and practicing it in games on street corners, players who weren’t tied to the more conservative and traditional notions of the game, we felt we could make a big impact.

World Cup 1998 Paris
An invigorated Nike Football team looked toward the 1998 World Cup in France as a coming out party. Nike also saw an opportunity in the globalization of football. Stars from South America and
Africa were now regularly playing in European leagues, bringing a new flair into leagues longdominated by a traditional style of play. The South American players in particular, grew up playing a type of football that valued unique dribbling skills, individual creativity and a more rhythmic, fluid game. The style relied on skills developed in informal pick-up games between children on the streets of Brazil and Argentina, where beating a player one–on-one mattered as much as scoring.
In the lead-up to the 1998 World Cup, Nike Football released the very successful “Airport” ad, which featured various members of the Brazilian national team playing soccer while waiting for their flight in an airport. The players performed dribbling and juggling tricks with a ball in the crowded airport, showing off their unique skills and style. The “Airport” ad was an immediate hit. Former
Nike Advertising Director Rob DeFlorio said:
When you transcend the sport and start seeping into popular culture, that’s what Nike does best. Being able to do that with football, which was the one sport that Nike hadn’t really been able to crack because Adidas owned it for so long, was a huge accomplishment. After that it was off to the races because Nike could do the same thing with football that it did with basketball or anything else.21
On the product side, Nike teamed with Brazilian star Ronaldo and developed a revolutionary new boot, the Mercurial. Edwards described the process, “We gave Ronaldo his first pair of Nike Air boots and he hated them, he said, ‘I don’t need to be cushioned, I need to go fast.’ He told us his ideal boot would be barefoot with studs, so we changed our design to address that idea.” The Mercurial was modeled after a track spike and became the lightest-weight football boot at the time. Edwards explained the Mercurial and Nike’s product vision:
The idea was “What could we do to improve the way people were playing football? How could they play with more fun, creativity and speed?” The Mercurial was critical in our
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development; it was a boot that related to the way people actually played the game. Before this, boots were pretty much black and white leather, the Mercurial revolutionized the way the industry approached creating boots. It solidified us as an innovator in football.
Ronaldo debuted the shoe, colored in Brazil’s blue and yellow team colors, at the 1998 World Cup.
(See Exhibit 5 for images of the original 1998 Mercurial worn by Ronaldo.)

World Cup 2002 South Korea and the Secret Tournament
Before the 2002 World Cup in South Korea, Nike Football launched the Secret Tournament marketing campaign, headlined by a TV commercial featuring 24 global football stars, pitted in single goal elimination, or “one-strike victory” three-on-three games. The games were played in a cage in the bowels of a tanker ship with dark lighting and exposed, dripping pipes. The final action sequence featured a close-up of the Nike Mercurial Vapor, an innovative boot designed for the 2002 World
Cup. In addition to being the lightest ever made, the shoes greatly enhanced players’ traction and acceleration by placing studs on those points of the foot most often utilized.
In support of the Secret Tournament ad and the debut of the Mercurial Vapor, Nike Football’s digital team launched an application on Nikefootball.com with which kids could create their own virtual three-on-three tournament. While Nike.com had been around since before the 1998 World
Cup, Nikefootball.com was launched in 2000 to engage with football fans globally. Interactive digital marketing efforts were still in their infancy, however, as Stefan Olander, Nike’s vice president of digital sport, explained, “If you went to Nike.com regardless of where you were in the world, whatever the U.S. was up to was what you were being served, which was kind of weird.”22 The Nike digital team saw an opportunity to innovate, and offered different versions of the website depending on the user’s country. Nikefootball.com became the first category site, standing alone from Nike.com, the first Nike website to be translated into multiple languages and presented globally, and with the
2002 World Cup push, it became Nike’s first interactive marketing website, allowing users to engage and participate actively in the website through games and information uploads.

Touch of Digital Gold
In mid-September 2005, Nike Football’s marketing team was asked to create messaging for a boot worn by superstar Ronaldinho (who played for the Brazilian National Team and FC Barcelona), the
Air Legend Gold. Not tied to a specific event, the effort was for a re-release of an existing boot in a new style, in this case gold colored leather, in a way that connected with consumers.
The team’s first inclination was to create a television commercial, short but professionally directed and filmed. But, instead, the team filmed a homemade-looking video in which Ronaldinho received the shoes, put them on, juggled a ball to the top of the penalty box and then shot the ball off the crossbar several times, received it and continued to juggle it. Once the film was made, which took only a few takes, the team debated on ways to release it.
Jesse Stollak, a digital manager working on Nike Football, had recently established a relationship with a start-up website called YouTube, a video-sharing site that allowed users to upload, share, search and view videos. On Stollak’s suggestion, Nike uploaded the ad to YouTube and created a
Nike Football channel on the site. The “touch of gold” video garnered nearly 20 million views in just a few weeks, at a time when hitting a million views over any timeframe was impressive, placing it into a new category of rapidly watched and circulated videos known as “viral.” Stollak reflected:

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We were the first company to really leverage YouTube with branded content. When I posted the touch of gold video people were a little freaked out here, they said “Are you crazy?
Why isn’t this on Nike’s website? How are people going to know it is Nike?” But when I posted it I created a Nike Football channel. We were really cutting edge in how we were using the new technologies that were out there. Beyond the technology, we were trying to figure out how to connect with our consumers using the new platforms. This was our first understanding that you could use the Internet and social networking sites to communicate with the young consumer in their context, in their language.

World Cup 2006: Germany
By World Cup 2006, Nike had nearly pulled even with Adidas in the world football market.
Adidas held a slight market share lead, with 35% of the market compared with 33% for Nike.23
However, Nike sponsored 45 of Europe’s top football clubs compared with Adidas’s 41.24 Nike
Football had grown from a valuation of $40 million in 1994 to almost $1.5 billion in 2006.25 Adidas was an official sponsor of the 2006 World Cup, a partnership that had been in place since the 1970
World Cup. The sponsorship, a deal worth $350 million, ensured Adidas a huge platform for its brand message including placement on the FIFA World Cup website which was estimated to attract 4 billion hits during the tournament.26 The German company, determined to shine on its home turf, spent nearly $200 million on an ad campaign named +10 that featured Adidas sponsored stars but emphasized that a star player plus 10 others equals a team. Additionally, it released a new boot, the
+F50 Tunit, which emphasized customization in both style and performance: allowing consumers to choose between dozens of different colors and patterns and select the weight of the shoe chassis and design of the stud to match weather conditions and style of play. At the World Cup, Adidas footballs would be used exclusively in the games, Adidas billboards would line the pitches and the contract with FIFA stated that Adidas advertisements were to be the only televised ads for football apparel and equipment during each match. Nike, with its options limited by the Adidas sponsorship contract, devised a new strategy led by its digital marketing group. Edwards noted this thought process:
Since 2000, digital was always a part of our strategy. We began thinking how can we best use this medium to connect with consumers? We saw the shift to digital and our view point was: stay with the young consumer, stay ahead of them, be a part of their world and that would allow us to reshape the way we connect with them. In the beginning we connected through great traditional advertising, like the “Airport” ad. But the way to connect with the consumer is different now. Sponsorships aren’t really connecting, that just drives awareness.
Joga Bonito Launched in February 2006, Joga Bonito, Portuguese for “play beautifully,” was an attempt to harness the power and reach of social networks by highlighting a fun, creative approach to football, exemplified by the Brazilian national team’s style of play. Nike worked with Google and its
Orkut platform, a social networking site that was popular in Brazil, to develop an interactive platform hosted at Joga.com. The social network platform was the first created by Nike, with the goal of attracting people around the world that were passionate about football so that they could collaborate virtually and have digital conversations and interactions about football. In five months the site signed up one million members.
Joga.com was available in 140 countries and 14 languages and featured an online TV channel
JogaTV, hosted by famed French footballer Eric Cantona. JogaTV broadcast videos showcasing global football stars “freestyling” or performing various tricks with the ball with different parts of their body. Stars such as Ronaldhino, Edgar Davids (Dutch national team and Tottenham Hotspur player) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese national team and Manchester United player) were featured. The
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site accepted user-generated content from amateur freestylers. Joga Bonita aimed to popularize
“freestyle football” and create a community of people engaged deeply in the game and its different cultures. Joga.com delivered discussion groups on teams and players and video clips from around the world. However, some consumers felt the user platform was tough to navigate, and while certain videos became popular most were viewed only by active participants. Nike stopped contributing to and actively managing Joga.com when the World Cup ended.
Product silos For the 2006 World Cup Nike decided to categorize its football boot product offerings by playing styles: speed, power and touch. The silos were meant to mimic the different styles of game and offer a boot for the type of player an individual felt they were. Each silo’s offerings provided a benefit, had a unique design innovation to improve that benefit and a star player associated with it.
On the pitch Nike Football sponsored eight national teams at the 2006 World Cup, two more than Adidas. Nike boots also delivered the most goals, with 55 of the 147 goals scored coming off a boot bearing the Nike swoosh. While the final was played between an Adidas team (France) and a
Puma team (Italy), 12 of the 22 starters wore Nike boots. Ronaldo, long-time front man of the Nike campaign, wore the Mercurial Vapor III, the new boot for the tournament, and scored three goals in the tournament to become the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history.

Refocusing for South Africa (2006-2009)
Following World Cup 2006, then-head of Nike Football, Joaquin Hidalgo, felt that while Nike had emerged from the 2006 World Cup with important victories, there was still room to learn, adapt and create even greater competitive separation. Hildalgo called an alignment meeting to identify and assess the lessons learned from the 2006 World Cup and adjust the strategy moving forward.
Target market shift First, the team decided that they needed to refocus their target market, from the original focus on a 12- to 14-year-old consumer to a focus on an older consumer with 17-year-olds as the epicenter. The team felt that the 17-year-old consumer was more independent, more driven in their football goals, could choose their own brand, buy their own products and form brand loyalty.
However, the team recognized that this change would require Nike to make an attitudinal shift.
While Nike Football saw the 13-year-old consumer as “aspirational,” the team envisioned the 17year-old consumer as one who wanted the tools to become the best possible player, seeking both
“inspiration and perspiration.” (See Exhibit 6 for a typical evolution of a footballer.)
Silo shift In addition, the product team made adjustments to the silos they had created. Based on research performed at NSRL and numerous conversations with both players and consumers, the product team felt that renaming the “power” silo to “accuracy” and adding a silo called “control,” would improve the offerings and better connect with consumers. Erez Morag, a senior researcher at
Nike, spoke about the NSRL’s role in the shift, “We performed a number of studies into shooting power and shooting accuracy. What we found was that when we switched the boots, power only varied by 1%, but looking at accuracy it varied by 10%. Looking at those numbers it was clear our boots could help a player improve accuracy and we needed to be promoting that.” (See Exhibit 7 for more detail on new silo offerings.)
Digital shift

Lastly, the company examined Joga Bonito more carefully. Edwards noted:

It was ahead of its time, but we learned some interesting things. We had a great ramp up, we attracted a lot of people to the site which affirmed our effort, we had real conversations and

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user-generated content through which we created a community and learned about our consumers. But after the World Cup we didn’t stay focused on it. We built this community of a million people and then we just kind of disappeared and let it drift away.
Joga Bonita also provided valuable insights about leveraging content to connect with the consumer. According to Edwards:
The content we created was for football fans and the site was where they would come to talk with others about their passion. But on Facebook and other social networks, content is more about your broader life. So, moving forward instead of trying to bring them into our world, we wanted to go and be part of their daily lives, we wanted to be pervasive and connect with the consumer in the ways that they already connect with things they enjoy and are interested in. We basically said: “Where is the consumer, where does the consumer congregate? Let’s be there and provide them with great content and great stories.”

Bootcamp
Following the offsite alignment meetings, the Nike Football team created the Nike Football
Training (NFT) initiative in the fall of 2006. Nike’s consumer insight work revealed that football obsessed teens (FOTs), the newly selected target, were interested in training that would enable them to become better players. Nike focused on fitness training, based on research that illustrated that the major gap between elite and aspiring FOTs was the length and intensity of preseason fitness training.
Bootcamp, the training regimen created for NFT by Nike researchers and world class football trainers Dr. Jens Bangsbo and Paul Winsper, was rolled out in the late spring of 2008, both digitally— on NikeFootball.com—and in grassroots events around the world. On the website, Nike offered a four-week basic program or a six-week advanced program. Those interested logged into the website for free and registered; this gave them access to 31 total drills, such as fitness drills that included use of the ball, with an assortment of videos and diagrams. The videos featured top-class trainers and coaches setting up and explaining drills, while teenage boys executed the drills behind them.
Participant feedback from Bootcamp was mostly positive, with two-thirds of players rating it an eight or higher on a 10-point scale. (See Exhibits 8 and 9 for Bootcamp consumer survey questions and responses and a blog post and Exhibit 10 for branded social media interest among consumers.)

The Road to South Africa—World Cup 2010
Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly II
As with the four previous World Cups, product innovation remained central to Nike Football’s efforts for the 2010 World Cup. A typical boot development cycle for Nike Football took about threeand-a-half years. The process included three months of conceptual planning and brainstorming, six to
12 months of research to confirm and quantify those trends, 12 months spent developing several prototypes and then rigorous testing by Nike-sponsored players and typical consumers before the boot was perfected and sent for manufacturing. For 2010, Nike’s design team partnered closely with top footballers Cristiano Ronaldo (now playing for Real Madrid), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (of the Swedish national team and AC Milan), and Alexandre Pato (of the Brazilian national team and AC Milan).
Nike typically allowed players to train in blacked out or disguised versions of the boots three months before their official launch at the World Cup. According to Edwards, “The athletes are not about

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sponsorship, they are about partnership. They are our research and development (R&D) and our proof of concept. They are simply the most demanding consumers you could possibly have.”
In an effort to push product innovation, NSRL researchers analyzed video of the previous World
Cup and found there were 845 slips over 64 games that could potentially impact the result of the game. With 86% of games won by one goal and a majority of goals scored in the last 15 minutes, the design team focused on making sure their athletes would have superior traction at World Cup 2010.
The result of testing and many design iterations was the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly II Elite.
The boot boasted adaptive traction, a novel design featuring pressure sensitive “smart studs” that would extend as needed on softer playing surfaces to offer superior stability and traction. The boot was also one of the lightest, yet most supportive boots made to date. It was constructed with unique flywire technology, a series of super-strong nylon fibers that reduced the weight of the boot while offering superior support. The light weight was also credited to using carbon fiber for the footplate.

2010 Elite Series
The design team also decided to use color schemes to offer athletes a performance enhancement. In
2006, Nike customized World Cup boots for its players to match their respective national team jerseys.
While many agreed the matching aspect looked nice, it did not allow the boots to stand out and did not add any performance benefit. For 2010, Nike chose two shades, “total orange” and “metallic mach purple” that met in the middle of the shoe for all four silos. Because the colors were the furthest on the color spectrum from green grass the effect was twofold, helping players on the field see the cleats in their peripheral vision and helping the Nike cleats stand out when viewed on television.

Advertising
“Advertising is dead but long live advertising,” commented Edwards on the need to create a commercial to showcase the new product and make a brand statement around the 2010 World Cup.
Davide Grasso, vice president of global brand, also reflected:
When we set out to create a commercial for 2010 we thought about what we stood for as a brand in football. We didn’t have to start from scratch, we have been in football for 15 years plus, we have a positioning, we have credibility. Before we entered football, if you didn’t have black boots with kangaroo leather and six studs, you were not credible. We brought lightweight performance, high-level technology, color; we are the innovator in the game.
The team again faced the situation of not being able to air commercials during the World Cup matches, forcing them to look toward other platforms to deliver the content. Grasso reflected, “To create something impactful you need the right message and the right platform.”
When developing commercials Nike worked with storied advertising agency and long-time partner Wieden+Kennedy. The balance between external opinions and internal motivations was important in developing a good commercial, Grasso discussed this balance:
The agency’s view of authenticity was that we needed to be on the field. We agreed that having an aspect of on-the-field play was important, but we wanted to expand past that. We told the agency we wanted to create a dialogue with the FOT in a new, innovative and creative way, while leveraging what we do best, combining an emotional connection with the culture while remaining authentic.

11

511-060

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Nike Football + (NF+)
Building up to the 2010 World Cup, and in the spirit of constant evolution, the team looked to learn from past initiatives like Bootcamp and Joga Bonita to create a cutting-edge digital offering. As they surveyed the digital landscape, it was clear that online activities and the social interactions they facilitated had picked up steam since 2006. (See Exhibit 11 for examples of digital life statistics globally.) The team proposed NF+, a company initiative to offer innovative products, like new football boots, with value added extras, such as training tips, training trackers, video and guidance aimed at improving player performance. The team believed that connecting the physical world of product with the digital world of consumers could prove highly effective, as was the case with
Nike+, a digital service for runners launched a few years earlier (see Exhibit 12 for details on Nike +).
Yet the Nike football team faced critical decisions about several important aspects of NF+ as they planned their next move.
One element was a question of content: should the team stock the site with fitness drills as in
Bootcamp? While users raved about Bootcamp’s execution, some users indicated they were interested in football-specific skills, rather than just fitness drills. If that were the case, should the four product silos (speed, accuracy, control, touch) be used to organize NF+ content and offer training aimed at improving the skills relevant for each? Additionally, the team debated who should deliver the content: coaches of famous club teams, who were used to explaining drills and skill development, or famous players who the FOTs had seen in action.
A second question was who should have access to NF+ content. While Bootcamp was free, some felt that access to NF+ should be on a fee or subscription basis. One proposal was to limit access to consumers who purchased Nike Football products. However, such limitations would require putting an access code for the digital service in the product packaging or tags. This decision was hotly contested, with some claiming exclusive access could limit adoption and lessen the impact of NF+.
Others felt that as word spread about the content and usefulness of NF+ it could serve as an incentive for consumers to purchase Nike products and engage more completely with the brand.
Internal expectations for NF+ were high. Edwards noted, “ We are confident in our ability to attract people with creative ads, commercials, video, but can we go beyond that? I think NF+ is an amazing idea, but how do we bring it to life and promote it. I am concerned about pulling this off in a truly impactful manner. Is this bigger than where we are or more than the medium allows us to do?”

Sustainability and Social Responsibility
Since 2005 Nike had been committed to reducing its impact on the environment without compromising its standards for performance. World Cup 2010 marked the first time sustainability had been an explicit part of a Nike World Cup strategy. Jones reflected, “Sustainability was moved up to the beginning of the planning process, it became part of the strategy. We wanted to be part of the kits, part of the on-the-ground team and make sure that Nike, a brand capable of being a voice of change, brought a meaningful message to Africa and left a meaningful impact.”
Nike planned to produce the jerseys for the national teams it sponsored at the World Cup out of recycled plastic bottles. Jones and her team were cognizant that consumers and top athletes had preconceived notions about sustainable products. (See Exhibit 13 for industry views on consumer opinion about the quality and performance of green products.) She said:
Back in 2007, our designers went to Michael Jordan and told him we could do a high performance basketball shoe and make it sustainable for the 23rd anniversary of his line. Jordan
12

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

511-060

said “No way,” but when we convinced him, and he played on the finished product, he then wanted all the Jordan shoes to be sustainable. Ultimately, I don’t want you to buy it because it’s a sustainable product; I want you to buy it because it is the best product out there.
Bringing sustainable products to football, specifically the jersey, for the first time added an additional challenge, Jones explained,
The jersey is a big risk because it touches the body, the players know the feel, but that’s the point, no one should know. I don’t want Nike to be known as the company that had the green shirt at the World Cup, I want Nike to be known as the company that brought performance innovation to the jerseys at the World Cup and then oh, by the way, that was made from recycled plastic bottles. Marketing something as sustainable is a dangerous avenue to go down because it potentially creates a subtext in the consumer’s mind of “what did you compromise?
Is it more expensive or lower performance?”
Jones debated with other Nike executives the pros and cons of touting the sustainable aspects of their products. Nike felt that sustainability should be standard and expected for companies and therefore should not be marketed. She was a driving force behind a 2006 decision to not announce the removal of a greenhouse gas from Nike’s air pockets, a technological development that took millions of dollars and nearly a decade to figure out.27 However, some saw brand, sales and reputational benefits to marketing products, especially the jerseys, as a unique sustainable design. Nike was slated to provide jerseys to the 10 National teams it was sponsoring for the World Cup 2010, with Adidas sponsoring 12 teams. (See Exhibit 14 for a list of teams sponsored by Nike, Adidas and Puma.)
Nike was also considering partnering with the (RED) foundation which worked with iconic brands in return for them donating part of the profits from selected products to the Global Fund, a non-profit that invested in HIV/AIDS intervention, education and treatment. (See Exhibit 15 for background on (RED) and its corporate partners.) Jones was excited about the opportunity, but was not sure it was the exact message Nike wanted to bring to Africa nor sure which products should be used in the effort and how best to roll it out. Companies that partnered with (RED) had created specially packaged products, while others created special edition, or rare products to promote their sale. Initial (RED) Nike product options included boots, jerseys or soccer balls. In these cases a portion of the profits on each product would be allocated to the fund. Another option was to take a low price item, like shoelaces, designate it as “(Red)” and have all its sales donated. Jones wondered how else her team could make an impact in South Africa, “We have the ability to be a voice for change. Having done a lot of work on AIDS and a lot of work in Africa, I know young men (16- to 19years-old) don’t talk about AIDS and HIV and prevention. We have a unique connection with these young men. How can we move that conversation from taboo to something these boys will listen to?”

A Strategy to Win at the World Cup 2010
Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, noted that the World Cup “is a world stage, a showcase. We are working with the best athletes, the best teams, with billions of people watching. Sport is central to the moment. It’s motivating. It’s almost like you are getting ready for a really important exam and you have to be at your best because you know it is going to count for a lot.”28 These words resonated with
Edwards as he entered the meeting at the Tiger Woods center.
Edwards wanted to ensure the product team, digital marketing team, advertising efforts and sustainability worked in harmony and projected a clear voice when delivering the Nike brand message. He wondered, how should Nike Football unveil and promote the Mercurial Vapor Superfly
13

511-060

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

II Elite, one of the lightest and most advanced football boots ever developed by Nike? How should the team incorporate sustainability? How could they use the World Cup to start and then continue a social media conversation with potential Nike Football customers? Was the shift to a 17-year-old target market the right decision? If so, what was the best way to communicate with these customers?
How could they ensure that they used the World Cup as an invitation to the brand to newcomers, while still projecting it as the trusted company it had become to Nike-loyal consumers? How would
Nike Football’s image need to evolve as the World Cup approached and after it ended? What was the best way to measure the success of each of the pieces?
Five pillars As the meeting unfolded the Nike Football team presented the five strategic pillars that would form the basis for the integrated marketing strategy:


Performance innovation—Deliver the best, most innovative, highest performing and most sustainable products in football.



Enablement innovation—Create new ways and tools for the FOT to become a better player.



Connecting at a deeper level—Get under the skin of the FOT and have a continued impact through any type of marketing activity that could serve the purpose of having the Nike brand resonate emotionally with the consumer.



Brand and business impact—Create a message that will open a dialogue with the consumer; beyond a sales increase linked to the World Cup, the strategy should foster lasting loyalty.



Before the World Cup—Win the battle before the opening whistle even blows. View the
World Cup as an amplifier, not a goal; as a means to an end and a moment in time.

Edwards wondered, given the five pillars and the reputation the firm had built in football, what
Nike should stand for at the 2010 World Cup. “There is a sense that we need to have an effort that leaves a legacy of our brand, and what we represent in football.” Edwards summarized the sentiment among all participants in the meeting, “If we do everything right, if we find ways to act on these five pillars, then when the opening whistle blows on June 11, 2010 we should be able to sit back, relax and enjoy watching our athletes perform.”

14

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Exhibit 1

511-060

Examples of Nike Sponsored Athletes by Sport

Football

Golf

Wayne Rooney

Tiger Woods

Didier Drogba

Stewart Cink

Cristiano Ronaldo

Anthony Kim

Alexandre Pato

Justin Leonard

Robinho

Paul Casey

Iniesta

Nike American Football

Nike Basketball

Tom Brady

LeBron James

Ndamukong Suh

Kobe Bryant

Tim Tebow

Kevin Durant

Darrelle Revis

Amare Stoudemire
Dirk Nowitzki

Nike 6.0 (Action Sports)

Nike Running

Louie Vito

Shalane Flanagan

Peetu Piiroinen

Meb Keflezighi

TJ Schiller

Bernard Lagat

Julian Wilson

Allyson Felix

Kai Barger
Source: Nike Inc. website, www.nike.com, accessed January 2011.

15

511-060

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Exhibit 2

Nike Brand Categories



Action Sports—Comprised of Nike 6.0 (made up of surfing, snowboarding, BMX, motocross, wakeboarding and skiing and Nike SB (skateboarding)), was the fastest growing category within the Nike Brand and was estimated at $390 million in revenue.



Athletic Training—Started more than 20 years ago with the advent of Nike cross-training.
This business was estimated at $1.4 billion in revenue.



Basketball—Led by the strength of the Jordan brand and excellent opportunities in the U.S. and China, Nike basketball was valued at approximately $1.7 billion in revenue.



Football—Nike Football revenue was estimated at approximately $1.7 billion, with plans to launch its largest-ever presence at a World Cup in 2010, including new footwear, national team kits, and NF+, a new digital offering.



Running—With approximately $2.1 billion in revenue, Nike’s original category continued to be the source for key innovations, including Flywire, Lunar Cushioning, and Nike + enabled footwear. Nikeplus.com was the world’s largest running club with close to 3 million registered members.



Sportswear—Nike’s largest category at about $4.9 billion in revenue, continued leveraging new performance ideas from the six sports categories as well as franchise products such as the
Air Force 1 (which sold 15 million pairs a year 25 years after its debut).



Women’s Training—With nearly $740 million in sales and the number one position in women’s training footwear in the U.S. and the top five European markets, a new generation of
Nike Free footwear—designed to strengthen the body and improve fitness by activating the core—continued to drive growth in this category.

Source: Company documents.

16

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Exhibit 3

Nike
Sales
COGS
SG&A
R&Da
Marketing
Op. Income
Net Income
PP&E - Net
Employees

511-060

Nike Inc. Selected Financials (in millions of US dollars)

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

12,253
6,703
3,134
NA
1,167
1,550
946
1,587
24,667

13,740
7,346
3,690
NA
1,378
1,894
1,212
1,606
26,000

14,955
8,086
4,212
NA
1,601
2,109
1,392
1,658
28,000

16,326
8,896
4,468
NA
1,740
2,132
1,492
1,678
30,200

18,627
9,936
5,019
NA
1,912
2,434
1,883
1,891
32,500

19,083
10,223
5,945
NA
2,308
2,375
1,487
1,958
34,300

Source: Thomson Reuters ONE Banker, accessed January 2011.
Note: a. Nike did not report R&D as a separate number; it was included in their SG&A figure.

Exhibit 4

Adidas

Adidas and Puma Selected Financials

Sales
COGS
SG&A
R&D
Op. Income
Marketing
Net Income
PP&E - Net
Employees

2003
7,905
4,337
2,810
108
562
NA
328
435
15,686

2004
8,805
4,629
3,230
120
726
NA
427
500
17,023

2005
7,827
4,053
2,861
74
779
NA
503
501
15,935

2006
13,297
7,349
4,698
129
1,010
2,101
637
909
26,376

2007
15,057
7,908
5,716
123
1,156
2,490
806
1,026
31,344

2008
15,012
7,697
5,766
113
1,271
2,107
892
1,232
38,982

Puma

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Sales
COGS
SG&A
R&D
Op. Income
Marketing
Net Income
PP&E - Net
Employees

1,607
985
384
38
219
200
226
84
3,189

2,080
1,215
486
50
352
NA
350
115
3,910

2,097
1,000
665
50
403
NA
337
144
5,092

3,124
1,543
1,097
75
434
NA
347
205
7,742

3,470
1,655
1,256
84
492
1,042
393
285
9,204

3,509
1,692
1,285
76
454
1,187
324
341
10,069

Source: Thomson Reuters ONE Banker, accessed January 2011.

17

511-060

Exhibit 5

Nike Footb ball: World Cup 2010 South Afri ica 1998 Nike Mercurial Wo by Ronald orn do

Source: Nik Inc Website, http://inside.n ke , nike.com/blogs/ /nikefootball-en_ n_NZ/2009/04/1 15/the-history-of f-speed-mercuria alma ark-one, accessed January 2011. d Exhibit 6

Typical Ev volution of a Footballer
F

duction to Fo ootball: 4- to 9-years-old—
—This age ma arked the be eginning of y youth sports i in Introd most coun ntries with a focus on bui ilding motor skills, fundam mentals, bala ance, coordina ation, and fun
n.
Many kid played mul ds ltiple sports at this age and future prom was only beginning to show. a d mise o
Increa
ased Training 10- to 12-y g: years-old—Footballers beg gan to separa themselve at this poin ate es nt and learn to train at a higher lev Training involved sm sided gam ned vel. mall mes, techniqu work and a ue good deal of tactical th l hinking but still had a stro bent tow ong ward the fun a and social asp pects of sport ts. Top level players in Europe were recruited to club teams t begin resid l E to dency and de evelop towar rd becoming a pro. g Greate Aspiration 12- to 15-ye er ns: ears-old—Aspirations of f football playe become cle ers earer, top level players in Europe at this point are training with club te n a w eams. Kids a aspire to be similar to to op profession nals, have lofty goals, mi imic the fash hion and styl of play of their favorit professional le te athletes. Their life beg
T
gins to be mo about foot ore tball than oth sports at this age, but it remained a her t dream an was still se as having a recreationa nd een g al/fun compo onent rather t than being ab bout dedicate ed training to achieve a lo o ong-term goal This group remains depe
l.
endent on par rents for tran nsportation an nd money an therefore does not have full purchasi independ ence. nd d ing Perspi iration and Aspiration: 16 to 18-years-old—Players in this age group begin to really focu
A
6s us on what they need to do to reach the next level. What skills tools, prod t t s, ducts would e enable them t to become th best player This is the age that at top club team players eith made it a he rs. e t ms her and went on t to become to profession op nals or were cut and play in lower leagues or e yed r exited footba By this ag all. ge players ha almost fu matured and showed their likely p ave ully potential for th next level. Their life wa he . as completel consumed by football and they wanted to bec ly come the nex great professional. The xt ey typically picked the bo p oots they wan nted to play in and often pu n urchased with their own m h money.
Source: Cas sewriter research
h.

18

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa
F
C

Exhib 7 bit 5
511-060

Nike Football Boot Silos (with de
F
S escription of i intended play and Elite s yer series prices)

trol-CTR36
60
Cont
Re
etail cost: $300
0
Al lways at the centre of the action, this playmaker di c p irects the gam with his v me vision and in ncisive passin Everythin runs throu ng. ng ugh him. He leads the atta and beat opponents with his tota ball ack ts al contro He lives for and is the heartbeat of the team. T ol. f e f
This technical master relies on a boot t s that is engin neered for enh hanced passin close contr and effecti distributio ng, rol ive on.

Spee ed-Mercuri ial
Re
etail Cost: $40
00
rn
Th speed dem turns the game in a flash with a l his mon e f lightening tur of accelera ation and blin nding footw work. Blessed with suprem speed and lethal move that take h me d es him past defe enders into sc coring oppor rtunities, he is the fastest player on the pitch and a f i p feared tormen ntor of oppos sition defense with e his sp peed and tech hnical brillianc This playe demands a boot that ena ce. er ables rapid ch hanges of dire ection to kee defenses on the back foo no matter the tight angl or elements. ep n ot, le

Accu uracy-T90 Re etail Cost: $32
25
Co onstantly striv ving for the perfect strike of the ball, th tireless fig p his ghter lives and breathes to score d goals. This deadly finisher relie on instinct and flawless execution to turn a game in the blink of an
.
es s o e eye. Leading from the front, thi player uses his power g
L
m is s game and pin npoint accura to capitali on acy ize the sli ightest oppor rtunity and bu the ball in the back of t net. ury n the Touc ch-Tiempo Re etail Cost: $27
75
Bo with a ball at his feet, this player makes it look easy every ti orn m ime. Never ru ushed, his tou is uch assure and effort ed tless, he com mmands respe from team ect mmates and o opponents ali ike. An instin nctive technical excellenc makes him the backbone of his team and sets him apart on the pitch. This p ce e m e player dema ands a boot where touch an feel is ever nd rything to dic ctate the pace and flow of a game.

Source: Company documents.

19

511-060

Nike Footb ball: World Cup 2010 South Afri ica Exhibit 8

Bootcamp Consumer Su urvey Questio and Respo ons onses

(Survey Si 10,054 pla ize: ayers)
Survey Scale: 1 to 10, 10 as highe possible re y est esponse. 

Ov verall, how interested are you in extra training a i e advice/progr rams, outside of what yo e ou alr ready do wit your team/club that ar designed t help you b th re to become a bet tter footballer r? 80% responded 8 or higher d 

ow y ur xperience wi ith regards t Nike’s Bo to ootcamp? 63%
%
Ho would you rate you overall ex res sponded 8 or higher r 

Ho would you rate the stre ow ength drills in Nike’s Bootc n tcamp? 63% re esponded 8 o higher or 

Ho would you rate the end ow durance drills in Nike’s Bo s ootcamp? 64% responded 8 or higher
%



Sp pecific aspects of the experi s ience


Ea to underst asy tand the drills 73% respon s; nded 8 or hig gher 

Ea to understand instruct asy tions and how the program works; 72% responded 8 w m
%
or higher



Ea to use and navigate the website; 66% responded 8 or higher asy d e %

Source: Com mpany documen nts. Exhibit 9

Blog Post and Letter on Bootcamp a Kilian Jacquet is a 16-year-old Belgian footba
1
B aller. A good one. And, ac ccording to him, tra aining with Nike Football has a lot to do with it. In h own word “I did
N
his ds: the Nike Football Bootcamp training at home, in the garden.
F
g
There were a few drills that I really like w ed—“High G
Gears,” “Star Run” and “Rebound.” I r download the PDFs of the drills and printed all of them a ded s s and I just too them to th pitch in m ok he my pocket. I can still remember very we the “Star Run” effect. . . I got a trans to a c ell
R
sfer better clu They said that they were positive surprised by my mo ub! d w ely d ovement without th ball, and a big reason fo that is the Star Run drill he or
S
l!!
Last se eason I playe with FC Dender, U19. I started at t U16, and when I ed D the started to train [with Bootcamp], my game wen to such a h
B
m nt high level, tha they at “upgraded” me to the U19. . . so tha anks a lot aga And next year I’ll play with ain! t y Zulte-War regem.” Good luck in the upcoming sea u ason, Kilian. But with focu like that, y
B
us you won’t ne much luck eed k.
The pro-conditioning program start on the Nike Football Fac p ts e cebook page o August 17th. on Source: Co ompany documen nts. 20

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa
F
C

Exhib 10 bit 5
511-060

Brand Social Me ded edia Interest Among Consu
A
umers

*Interest is def fined as a 4 or 5 on a scale from 1 [extremely disin o nterested] to 5 [e extremely interes sted] Note: Social to ools that were in ncluded in this calculation are b blogs, social netw work profiles, p podcasts, online videos, online forums, and widgets.
,

*Interest is def fined as a 4 or 5 on a scale from 1 [extremely disin o nterested] to 5 [e extremely interes sted] Note: Consum mers who use eac technology ar defined as tho who contribu or read discu ch re ose ute ussion/online for rums at least monthly; listen to podca
;
asts at least mon nthly; visit social networking sit at least mont l tes thly; watch vide from eo other users at least monthly; use Web or deskto widgets at lea monthly; and publish or read blogs at least mo op ast d onthly.
Source: Josh Bernoff; Cynthia N. Pfla aum, “The Social Tools Consume Want From T l ers
Their Favorite B
Brands,” April 15 2009,
5,
Forrester Rese earch, Inc., via Fo orrester, accessed December 2010 d 0.

21

511-060

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Exhibit 11

Global Digital Lifestyle Statistics

Gaming

Multi-media

Interest

News

Browsing

Admin

Organise

Knowledge

Daily

Email

Social

I1: Frequency of online activities.
Bases: All respondents 48804

Shopping

% Doing Activity Daily

Ever
98
92
89

93

86

89
87
81

79

70

80
72
55
46

46

39

37
21

19

27

24
12

% Actively Looking for Brands

46

39

Gaming

Multi-media
37

33

29

26

Interest

49

35
29

News

Browsing

Shopping

Admin

Organise

Email

Social

Knowledge

% Who Find Brands Intrusive
I4: Intrusiveness of brand contact.
Bases: All respondents 48804

29

22

12
19

22
28

22

15

17
23

18

16
22
26

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

511-060

Exhibit 11 (continued)

Daily
Ever
% Social Networking
I1.01: Usage frequency of SN
Bases: All respondents n=48804
97

90

92

83

86

90

80

76
80

79

64

54

42

LAm

MENA

24

EmA

Ch

28

DevA

SEEu

NAm

NWEu

28

Global

54
41

SSA

56
43

Ind

50

46

Nam=North America, NWEu=North West Europe, SEEu=South East Europe, DevA=Developing Asia, Ch=China,
Ind=India, EmA=Emerging Asia, Lam=Latin America, MENA=Middle East and North Africa, SSA=Sub Saharan Africa

% Online Users Who Agree That: 'In the Online World, I Can Better Express My Feelings'
L2: Personal values and attitudes
Bases: All respondents 48804

64

66

Ind

61

Ch

81

55

32

34

LAm

SSA

MENA

EmA

SEEu

20

NWEu

Global

19

DevA

27

NAm

39

Source: Adapted from Discover Digital Life, http://discoverdigitallife.com/, accessed January 2011.

23

511-060

Exhibit 12
2

Nike Footb ball: World Cup 2010 South Afri ica Details on Nike + n Nike +, created in partnership with Apple, is an integra
+
w ated digital to that help runners sta ool ps ay motivated and get the most out of each run. Run d e nners can trac their progr ck ress, log ever run, connect ry with other runners and receive coac d ching with Ni ike+ enabled devices like t iPhone, iP nano, iPo the Pod od touch, Nike+ SportBan the Nike+ compatible Heart Rate M nd, +
Monitor from Polar, the N m Nike+ GPS ap pp and the upcoming Nik GPS Spor u ke+ rtWatch Pow wered by Tom mTom. After c connecting or syncing you r ur device to NikePlus.co om, you can tap into the Nike+ comm munity to ke eep track of all your run ns, challenge your friends, reach new le
,
evels, set goal and train w Coach pr ls with rograms. As on jogged, the Nike+ enabl device tra ne led acked distance speed and calories burn e, ned. One coul ld then uplo oad the data on to the Nikeplus.com website wh
N
m hich stored t the data and enabled eas d sy tracking of progress. The software allowed setti future go o T ing oals which could then be t tracked durin ng future runs. The web bsite linked to Facebook and Twitter to help runn o a ners form gr roups to shar re challenges and perform mance data. Nike designe a special recess to hou the Nike + sensor int ed use e to many of its running sh i hoes to encourage consumers to purcha both prod ase ducts. The spo kit retaile orts ed for about $30 and the running shoe for an avera of $80. N r es age Nike + expand Nike’s role in the life o ded of runners fr rom just an ap pparel suppli to an integ part of the whole runn ier gral e ning experienc ce. Source: Cas sewriter and Nik Inc, “Nike Plu Nike Inc. com ke us,” mpany website, w www.nikeplus.co accessed Jan om, nuary 2011.

24

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Exhibit 13
Products

511-060

Industry Views on Consumer Opinion About Quality and Performance of Green

“Consumers must believe that a product will get the job done. But many believe that green products are of lower quality than their more traditional “browner” counterparts. According to the
2007 GfK Rober Green Guage study of more than 2,000 Americans, fully 61% believe that green goods perform worse than conventional items.”b –Shiela Bonini and Jeremy Oppenheim, McKinsey & Company
“Consumers still value performance, reliability, and durability much more than a product’s ecological soundness.”c –Shiela Bonini and Jeremy Oppenheim, McKinsey & Company.
“Patagonia wants to dispel the myth that in order to have high quality product you have to have something damaging to the environment, and that a product of high environmental quality has to be ugly. . . We try to help customers broaden their definition of quality to include a product that takes the environment into account….”d –Jil Zilligen former vice president of environmental initiatives at
Patagonia.

“We discovered consumers think that green products are not as effective or strong.”e –Raj
Raghunathan, Associate Professor of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business.

“People expect tires made from recycled materials to be less durable than other tires and green detergent to clean less well. An energy efficient bulb may be expected to burn less brightly and gallon-for-gallon, ethanol-based fuel may be expected to provide less energy. To be successful, energy-efficient or so-called green products need to overcome the penalty that consumers levy on them.”f -David Wenger, Texas Enterprise.
“Most consumers are unwilling to make concessions on product performance. Regardless of ingoing expectations it should be clear that manufacturers cannot afford to lower the bar, as consumers are unlikely to make repeat purchases for items that sacrifice performance for green benefits.”g –Robert Mooth Vice President, Client Consulting, Nielsen BASES.
Source: Compiled by casewriter.

b Sheila Bonini; Jeremy Oppenheim ‘Cultivating the Green Consumer,” Stanford Social Innovations Review; Fall 2008, pg 56,

accessed January 2011. c Sheila Bonini; Jeremy Oppenheim ‘Cultivating the Green Consumer,” Stanford Social Innovations Review; Fall 2008, pg 56,

accessed January 2011. d Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Michael Crooke, Forest Reinhardt, Vishal Vasishth, “Households’ Willingness to pay for ‘Green’

Goods: Evidence from Patagonia’s Introduction of Organic Cotton Sportswear,” Journal of Economics and Management Strategy,
Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2009, 203-233, accessed January 2011. e David Wenger, “Consumers mistrust green products, but won’t admit it,” Texas Enterprise Organization, October 5, 2010,

http://texasenterprise.org/article/consumers-mistrust-green-products-wont-admit-it, accessed January 2011. f David Wenger, “Consumers mistrust green products, but won’t admit it,” Texas Enterprise Organization, October 5, 2010,

http://texasenterprise.org/article/consumers-mistrust-green-products-wont-admit-it, accessed January 2011. g Robert Mooth, “Winning at Green Innovations: Room for growth in untapped markets,” Neilson Wire, March 3, 2009,

accessed January 2011.

25

511-060

Exhibit 14

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

World Cup 2010 Team Sponsorships by Company
Adidas
Germany
Spain
Mexico
Argentina
Japan
Paraguay
Slovakia
France
South Africa
Greece
Denmark
Nigeria

Nike
Brazil
England (Umbro)
South Korea
United States
Netherlands
Portugal
Australia
Serbia
New Zealand
Slovenia

Puma
Uruguay
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Italy
Algeria
Cameroon
Switzerland

Source: Casewriter Research, based on FIFA website, http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/southafrica2010/teams/ index.html, accessed January 2011.

26

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa
F
C

Exhib 15 bit 5
511-060

Inform mation About (RED) t (R
RED) works with large, ico w onic brands from around the world to make uniqu (RED) prod o ue ducts, giving up 50% of their profits to the Globa Fund to in g al nvest in HIV and AIDS pr rograms in A
Africa.
Every dollar goes straight to pe y eople who ne it so they can go on ta eed y aking care of their familie and f es contri ibuting to the communiti eir ies.
Sin 2006, (RE generated over $160 million of the Global Fun and over f nce ED) d m e nd five million p people were helped by the HIV and AI e IDS programs supported b (RED) purc s by chases. Ho Red Works ow rands partner with (RED and sampl special pro red D) le oduct offering gs: Br
Am
merican Express—America Express (P an Product)RED ca ard–U.K. only y Ap pple—Apple (Product)RED Ipod Nano
Bu
ugaboo—All Bugaboo prod
B
ducts were (P
Product)RED
Co onverse—Con nverse (Produ RED shoes uct) De ell—Dell (Pro oduct)RED PCs and printers
Em
mporio Arman ni—Emporio Armani(Prod duct)RED sung glasses and w watches GA
AP—GAP (Pr roduct)RED art edition graphic Ts tist Ha allmark—Hal llmark (Produ RED greetin cards–US only uct) ng
Sta
arbucks—Star rbucks (Produ RED tumbl water bot uct) ler, ttle, pound of whole bean c f coffee
Sh
hazam—Shaza (Product)RED special ed am dition iPhone app
Ca
arolina Bucci—
—Carolina Bu (Product)RED special ed ucci ) dition bracele ets Source: (RED) foundat tion website, http p://www.joinre ed.com/aboutred About (RED), a d, accessed January 2011, and casew y writer.

27

511-060

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

Endnotes
1 Think Exist, “Bill Shankly Quotes,” Thinkexist.com, http://thinkexist.com/quotes/bill_shankly/, accessed
December 2010.
2

Matthias
Kunz,
“265 million playing football,” FIFA
Magazine,
July
2007,
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/bcoffsurv/emaga_9384_10704.pdf, accessed November 2010.
3 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), “About http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/marketing/index.html, accessed November 2010.
4

FIFA:

Marketing,”

FIFA,

David Goldblatt, The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, (New York: Penguin, 2008), p. xiv.

5 Unless otherwise noted all information for this section sourced from case interviews or Nike, Inc.
“History,” Nike Inc. website, http://www.nikebiz.com/company_overview/history/1950s.html, accessed
November 2010.
6

Steve Prefontaine site, “Memorial,” http://www.prefontainerun.com/index.html, accessed December 2010.

7

“Nike, Inc” Advertising Age, September 15, 2003, http://adage.com/article?article_id=98797, accessed
December 2010.
8
Monte
Burke,
“On the Run,”
Forbes,
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0211/082.html, accessed January 2011.
9

January

Ben Klayman, “Nike likely to cut 2009 marketing budget,” Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE51A8DI20090211, accessed January 2011.

17,

February

10

Ellen McGirt, “Artist. Athlete. CEO.,” Fast Company, September 2010, Issue 148, p 66-74.

13

Shoe Manufacture and Apparel Manufacture, via First Research, accessed December 2010.

14

2009,

Ellen McGirt, “Artist. Athlete. CEO.,” Fast Company, September 2010, Issue 148, p 66-74.

12

11,

Ellen McGirt, “Artist. Athlete. CEO.,” Fast Company, September 2010, Issue 148, p 66-74.

11

2008,

Adidas Company History, Hoover’s, Inc., www.hoovers.com, accessed December 2010.

15

Rukimini Callimachi, “Nike challenges Adidas for Europeans soccer turf,” The Seattle Times, November 26,
2004, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041126&slug=soccerwars26, accessed
November 2010.
16

Adidas Company History, Hoover’s, Inc., www.hoovers.com, accessed December 2010.

17 Jeremy Mullman, “Adidas Rewards Consumers for Sharing in Online Push,” Advertising Age, February 4,
2010, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141911, accessed December 2010.
18

Jeremy Mullman, “Adidas, Budweiser Trump Ambushers After Start of Cup,” Advertising Age, July 2, 2010, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144773, accessed December 2010.
19 Unless otherwise noted all information for this section sourced from case interviews or “The DNA of Nike
Football,” Department of Nike Archives, 2010.
20

The DNA of Nike Football,” Department of Nike Archives, 2010.

21

The DNA of Nike Football,” Department of Nike Archives, 2010.

22

The DNA of Nike Football,” Department of Nike Archives, 2010.

23 Owen Gibson, “Gloves off and kits on for football’s other battle,” The Gaurdian, March 23, 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/mar/23/newsstory.sport, accessed December 2010.

28

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

511-060

24

Rukimini Callimachi, “Nike challenges Adidas for Europeans soccer turf,” The Seattle Times, November 26,
2004, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041126&slug=soccerwars26, accessed
November 2010.
25

Unless otherwise noted the rest of the paragraph is taken from “Adidas’ World Cup Shutout,”
BusinessWeek, April 3, 2006, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_14/b3978079.htm, accessed
November 2010.
26

Stephanie Kang, Mike Estrl, “Adidas, Nike vie for World Cup marketing supremacy,” The Wall Street
Journal, May 23, 2006, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06143/692449-28.stm, accessed January 2011.
27

Ellen McGirt, “Artist. Athlete. CEO.,” Fast Company, September 2010, Issue 148, p 66-74.

28

Kamel
Ahmed,
“Nike:
Alive
and
Kicking,”
The
Telegraph,
February
27,
2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7330764/Nike-Alive-and-kicking. html, accessed December 2010.

29