Nike Case Study

Nike and MSN Launch Pan-European Online Football Game

MSN worked with Nike to engage consumers with the Nike Ol football campaign in the run up to Euro 2004. This exclusive online initiative formed part of Nikes broader integrated media campaign devised to communicate Nikes overall football positioning while showcasing Nike products. Global brands, like Nike, are increasingly recognising the power of online to reach audiences at a pan-European and global level simultaneously in areas separate to their own web content.

Nikes objective with this campaign was to reach out to our target audience in a new way and allow them to fully interact with the brand. The Instant Messenger deal matched our objectives to onlines capabilities, creating an excellent solution. David Indo, Media Director, Nike Europe.

THE TARGET AUDIENCE

Nike and MSN created a unique online football game tailored to the MSN Messenger platform. The game was based on the highly successful advanced multiplayer football game on The MSN Ole game went live across 11 European markets on 10 June for three months and was promoted by targeted marketing across the MSN network. Promotion of the game was also supported by MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger and MSN Today advertisements (varied per country). Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands were all involved with this initiative. The Nike campaign delivered significant cost and resource efficiencies. As a global sports brand, Nike identified its target audience as the youth market and wanted a compelling solution to effectively reach its audience. Youth is a competitive arena and Nike saw MSN as the ideal medium to communicate with its target market, as MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger offer advertisers access to a huge European youth audience: - MSN Hotmail, for instance, has over 8.5 m unique users in Europe between the ages of 18 and 24 (MSN Internal Data, July 2004). In the UK this age group nearly accounts for over 25% of the entire hotmail account base. (MSN Internal Data, July 2004). - 26% of European MSN Instant Messenger users fall into the 18 24 age group. (MSN Internal Data, July 2004).

OBJECTIVE
The MSN Instant Messenger project has been one of our easier deployments Emily Brew, Digital Brand Director, Nike Europe.
Nike wanted an innovative solution to be able to deliver an effective campaign simply across multiple markets. The main objective was to drive awareness of the Nike football game and effectively engage its target audience with the themes of the wider Ole campaign across key markets in Europe.

CREATIVES
The game was played via MSN Messenger and based on the advanced multiplayer football game on www.nikefootball.com, which features some of the worlds top players, including Thierry Henry, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Francesco Totti and Roberto Carlos.

The project we have undertaken with Nike clearly reinforces MSNs one-stop-shop ability to plan, implement and execute multi-country campaigns from a central point. The project has proven simple to implement across multiple markets and it demonstrates how digital marketing can be used creatively to meet a customers campaign objectives on a multi country basis. Through working with MSN Messenger, Nike is able to take advantage of MSNs user base and engage a huge audience with their football message. Chris Dobson, General Manager Digital Marketing Sales and Trade Marketing, MSN International.

The Nike Ol game was a peer-to-peer application, which could be played only on MSN Messenger with users being able to invite friends to join through the conversations they hold.

RESULTS
MSN surpassed Nikes objectives significantly and Nike were delighted with the results. The Nike campaign generated impressive trade coverage in six European markets:

MSN INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE MSN PR and Nike created a buzz due to the uniqueness of this deal

United Kingdom New Media Age 10th June 2004

MSN lance un jeu de foot en ligne en exclusivit avec Nike MSN vient juste de lancer le jeu de football 3D dvelopp par Nike, baptis "Ol" (conformment l'actuelle campagne de pub mene par la marque au swosh au niveau international) sur MSN Messenger. Le jeu, dont la version originale est disponible sur www.nikefootball.com, a t adapt afin de pouvoir utiliser de manire optimale les fonctionnalits de communication de MSN Messenger. Afin d'assurer la promotion de "Ol" le jeu, une campagne de pub cible est difuse sur lensemble du rseau MSN, en France donc mais aussi en Belgique, au Danemark, en Finlande, en Norvge, en Sude, au Royaume-Unis, en Allemagne, en Espagne, en Italie et au Pays-Bas.

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