Nike NBA cOnNected JerseY
Agency: AKQA
ROLE: Senior Art Director
Insight
There are half a billion basketball fans globally. Only a small percentage will ever get to attend an NBA game.
When Nike signed its eight-year partnership with the NBA, there was opportunity to grow the game by bringing fans everywhere closer to courtside.
But in a generation that demands more, the partnership needed to look beyond passive broadcast. It needed to make fans feel a part of the game through an authentic connection to the players, teams and culture they love.
AKQA Team: Johnny Budden (Group Creative Director), Carlos Matias (International Design Director) Tim McDonell (ACD), Felipe Yamaoka (Art Director), Antoine Christian (Art Director), Devin Altman (Copywriter), Evan Dunn (Senior Copywriter), Khoi Phan (Senior Art Director)
I: BuiLd the Nike NBA Connect Platform
IDEA
A jersey that connects you to the name on your back. Every Nike NBA Connected Jersey comes built with a personalized digital experience, unique to every single player and team in the league.
On gameday, fans can tap their phone on the NikeConnect jock tag to gain unprecedented access to the latest Nike product, highlights from the game, and premium experiences. Through a global integrated launch campaign, fans everywhere from Chicago to Shanghai were then invited to Tap In To The Game.
By simply tapping your smartphone on the tag on the bottom of your jersey, you
get next-level access to athletes, exclusive offers, and the game you love.
II: Launch the NBA x Nike Partnership
As the lead Art Director, my role was to work with Nike Global Basketball and Brand Design to develop all the communications around the NBA x Nike partnership. Leveraging existing Nike relationships and leaning on the Nike family, we successfully launched in September of 2017.
III: In-store demo
We created Tap in to the Game intro videos: a combination of storytelling and utility - providing consumers a preview of the world they are unlocking.
IV: Nike Innovation Summit
Our role as an agency was to help the Nike comms team build up anticipation for the big launch day. We spent 4+ months concepting and helping Nike Global basketball sell into VPs our ideas around launch. Some of the bigger ideas involved 150' holograms to AR versions of Kyrie, Lebron, and Kevin Durant. A lot of the content featured at the Innovation Summit was shot and directed by my team at AKQA. In addition to concepting and designing for the launch, my team interviewed and captured all 25+ Nike athletes. One of my proudest moments was sitting down with Kevin Durant and interviewing him about the Connected Jersey. The content has been used in the Nike app for Athlete Journals, Expert Pick, Spotify Playlists, and athlete welcome messages.
