Marketing Breakdown: Nike's 'Winning Isn't for Everyone'
Marketing Breakdown: Nike's 'Winning Isn't for Everyone'
Inside Nike's new campaign, J. Crew launches a newsstand, an Aesop exec launches a new luxury deodorant, and Vogue Korea tapped a viral Olympic shooter.
In Today’s Newsletter
Campaign Breakdown: Nike’s ‘Winning Isn’t for Everyone’
J. Crew’s NYC Newsstand
An Aesop Exec Launches a Luxury Deodorant
I Love this Vogue Korea Editorial with an Olympic Shooter
Campaign Breakdown: Nike’s Winning Isn’t for Everyone
I saw a post last night from Michael Miraflor, giving his thoughts on Nike’s new campaign:
The new campaign, which launched last month during the Paris Olympics, takes a new spin on Nike’s core brand pillar: winning.
It debuted with a Willem Dafoe narrated ad—
And quickly expanded to a full range of out of home (OOH) ads featuring different variations of this ‘winning isn’t for everyone’ theme and photos of their signature athletes: LeBron, Serena Williams, Sha’Carri Richardson, etc.
This isn’t launching in a vacuum: I’ve written extensively on Nike’s sales slump, internal conflicts, and product stagnation recently. Revenues have been trending downward, and they missed sales expectations last quarter, falling 2% behind.
Their CEO is scrambling, backing down from their all-DTC approach that pulled product from major 3rd party retailers and shifted focus to their owned e-commerce channels.
And so this new campaign serves as a Hail Mary attempt to flex Nike’s marketing muscle that has generated iconic campaigns in the past.
But the reception has been tepid, with many critiquing how ‘exclusionary’ the campaign feels.
The video ad begins with the phrase, “Am I a bad person?” and goes on to have Dafoe muse on an athlete’s obsession with winning, single mindedness, and extreme focus at all costs.
The messaging is inherently alienating.
But in my opinion, this campaign is a refreshing and bold take that takes a risk and speaks to the right kind of consumer.
I talk a lot with brand founders who want to make a product that appeals to ‘everyone’
From a financial perspective, I understand this desire, they want a massive total addressable market.
But making something for everyone is essentially the same as making something for no one.
Brands that hone in on their target audience, and build a ‘brand world’ that speaks directly to them are the ones that cultivate cult followings and passionate consumers.
This new Nike campaign literally isn’t for everyone, but to the real grinders, who are obsessed with what they do and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals— this campaign shows Nike is still a brand for them.
One of my favorite content creators is Zach Pogrob, who has built a massive 1M+ audience by focusing on one core theme: Obsession.
Zach’s content is like ‘Winning Isn’t for Everyone’ but on steroids. He constantly talks about the benefits of being totally obsessed with your craft, at the expense of your free time, sleep, relationships, etc.
And while this could come off as fake and lame, Zach backs it up because he actually practices what he preaches. He runs obsessively— literally all the way to Montauk.
His content isn’t for everyone, but to the right audience it feels like a breath of fresh air, and rallying cry for aspiration.
Nike’s new campaign is obviously more appealing to general audiences, but it does feel aspirational, daring, and bold. Winning literally isn’t for everyone. The very concept of winning, means someone has to lose.
Nike could have made some tepid campaign about ‘choosing excellence’ or striving for greatness— but then we wouldn’t be taking about it.
So my takeaways for all the creative directors, brand marketers, and founders reading today’s letter is to create products and messaging that speaks to one audience better than any competitor. Don’t be for everyone. Be for someone.
I’m honestly curious what you guys think. Drop a comment below or answer this poll
J. Crew’s NYC Newsstand
Now the brand is doing a full-court press to get it in as many hands as possible.
They’ve set up a newsstand at 88 Prince Street in NYC, which will be open today from 11am-5pm.
The stand will have copies of each catalog cover, Chamberlain coffee, and candy from Bon Bon (cursed)
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