ABOUT

Challenge

This summer, twenty years on, the Nike Air Max 97s came back exclusively at Foot Locker, along with a range of athleisure apparel. Our brief was to drive heat around the launch on social, and put them at the top of our audience’s back to school list.

Solution

We took inspiration from the shoe’s origins. The classic Nike Air Max 97 were way ahead of their time - the fluid lines and silvery tones inspired by Japanese bullet trains. Twenty years later that futuristic vision still stands with the Nike Air Max 97 Ultra.

We identified stars of the future, key Nike influencers and athletes across Europe, to help us drive heat around the launch in the run up to the back to school period.

We combined their social and cultural influence, alongside an epic futuristic campaign based in urban environments across Europe, to remind consumers that the Nike Air Max 97s are back.

Activity

#Future Forward is a series of six films that reveal a star of the future, rocking the Nike Air Max 97s, in a city of tomorrow.

The UK campaign film features Manchester United star Marcus Rashford and grime artist, and Drake collaborator, Santan Dave. In Italy, hip hop musician and DJ Sfera Ebbasta, and Juventus star Federico Bernadeschi star. And in France, the campaign features rapper Niska and man of the moment, Monaco soon-to-be Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe.

Each shoe drop takes cues from an envisioned near-future metropolis environment. Therefore in our series of six films, produced and directed by MPC Creative, the Future Forward athletes and influencers appear in visionary cityscapes and spaces. A world that feels familiar, but for its augmented reality-inspired visual overlay. Shot on location in Turin, Manchester and London.

Result

The strategy worked. Social influence saw Facebook reach over 6.2 million people with over 3.6 million views.

There were over 1 million completed views on Snapchat, and nearly 2.5 million people saw the videos on Instagram stories via the influencers’ profiles.

But most importantly, we drove 450,000 people to shop for the sneaker via the Nike AM97 product page on footlockers website.