Marketing Storytelling Nike

Nike's storytelling technique

“Just do it” Who among us does not associate this slogan with Nike? In addition to this uniform phrase, the sports brand also has much more to offer. In this presentation, we want to focus primarily on Nike's storytelling technique. The company has developed this strategy through years of experience in the sports marketing field. They, like no other sports company in the world, can attach their products with real emotions, which creates a bond between customers and the manufacturer.

Nike is especially known for their celebrity endorsements, where they perfectly fit the celebrity with a philosophy. They manage to create a story that appeals to everyone, because each of these stories has some element of everyday life, making it more down-to-earth.

The tactic: storytelling in general

In communicating their brands, businesses need to tell a compelling story that connects with its audiences on an emotional level. Every story requires a clearly understood central character with which people can identify and create a long-lasting emotional bond: the brand persona. Without a strong brand persona, the brand narrative lacks a focus.

For decades, storytelling has been part of Nike's strategy to communicate the values and authentic character of its brand. Although the "Just Do It" campaign was launched back in 1988, it is still highly relevant today, 32 years later. Everyone associates this phrase with the Nike brand. The beauty of the “Just Do It” slogan is that it resonates across cultures and experience. Everyone has felt the need to rebel, to push against stereotypes and accomplish the nebulous “it.” (feelings we all have in common). But, even more simply, it takes the idea of a hero and a villain and creates a personal internal tension between the active you and the inactive you.

If you ask yourself why this campaign has such an immense impact on people, it is clearly due to its simplicity, its highly visual character, its memorability and of course its storytelling.

While other brands using storytelling often show their product, a campaign for Nike running shoes won’t focus on the product. In fact, you rarely see the product on a Nike advertisement based on storytelling; it is in the background. They focus on the impact they can have on your emotions – Nike talks about emotions, promotes experiences and feelings. The campaign will seed the idea that you can become a better athlete by wearing Nike footwear. You can run that marathon. You can score that goal. You are the story in the making that will one day become legend.

Examples:

Take for example Nike's first commercial: Nike first commercial link.