This week’s viral that won’t die is our most recent one yet, it’s from May this year and debuted at the height of anticipation for this year’s World Cup in South Africa.
This campaign came out in advance of the Cup as Nike is not actually a sponsor but rather an ‘official partner’.
The epic campaign is three minutes long and features a host of football stars including Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo.
The epic ‘Write the Future’ spot, in less than one month, has set a new record for most views of a viral video ad, according to web video analytics company Visible Measures.
It beat the previous record holder, another Nike ad called “Earl and Tiger” featuring golfer Tiger Woods after his heavily publicized return to the sport.
Ad agency Wieden+Kennedy produced the ad, which was directed by illustrious Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. Nike VP Trevor Edwards was quoted in Advertising Age saying the ad is “among the best we’ve ever done.”
The ad has had more than 15.7 million views on YouTube.
Meanwhile, while Nike is not an official World Cup sponsor, thanks to some creative marketing consumers across the globe are linking the company to the world’s largest soccer tournament, according to The Nielsen.
Nielsen analysed online blogs, message boards and social networking sites and found that the sports shoe and apparel giant was more frequently linked to the World Cup than any of the tournament’s official partners and sponsors.
The study revealed that, over the last month, there were twice as many references to Nike in online English-language messages related to the World Cup than for its biggest competitor and official World Cup partner, adidas – who had the highest levels of tournament mentions of any of the official brands.
Nine of the 32 teams participating will be wearing Nike kits including the UK, US and Australia, compared to 12 for adidas.
Much of Nike’s buzz activity has been driven by its global ‘Write the Future’ campaign.