Nike rallied 300,000+ fans around a simple truth: running can suck. Through a series of emotionally charged short-form videos, Nike spotlighted athletes like Sally McRae, Blake Leeper, Sifan Hassan, and Vinicius Jr., capturing the raw moments of lacing up at dawn, battling through rain, and pushing forward even when every fiber says to quit. This campaign doesn’t just highlight the physical toll of running; it reveals the core of Nike’s marketing genius. But beyond the grit and sweat, how does this bold strategy signal a potential pivot for Nike's fiscal future? This marketing case study explore how Nike’s “Winning Isn’t Comfortable” marketing campaign not only resonated with millions but also how it could ignite a billion-dollar turnaround for the brand.
Nike is riding the wave of a successful summer olympics by debuting its Winning Isn’t Comfortable marketing campaign. Like its predecessor, this new campaign features similar deliverables the not only tug on emotional strings, but also leverage the use of influencer marketing coupled with runner stereotypes to get its message across. Nike’s new marketing campaign is exclusively on Instagram, and has yet to reach other social networks.
Despite Nike’s new campaign being limited to one social network, their marketing efforts are more dialed in than ever. Through the brand’s three video series, here is who they are targeting, where they are located, what this persona enjoys (outside of running, of course), and why this demographic over others.
- Nike’s Ideal Persona - Lovers & Haters: Fortunately, you don’t need to be into marathons to be an ideal audience for this campaign. Since everyone is an athlete, according to Nike, anyone who had any affiliation to running can resonate with this campaign. Sports ranging from football (both kinds), to soccer, basketball, tennis, cross country, and dare I say golf (sometimes) all involve running or continual movement at the very least. Nike understands that while everyone may not agree it’s fun, everyone has an opinion on running, the ideology they’re banking on in its latest efforts.
- Men and Women between 12-55: Yes, a broad range creates minimal impact. Everyone from a middle school cross-country runner to a retired NFL athlete can all resonate with this marketing campaign in one way or another. This broad range cover the vast majority of the converting bell-curve, but the optimal range within the broad estimate is within 20-45. This range is young enough to still enjoy consistent activity without significant health concerns, but is old enough to spend their money on one or several running products from Nike.- Coupled with age is preferred social media platform. In this case, Nike exclusively marketed this campaign on Instagram, meaning that older generations who prefer Meta (Facebook) are singled out. Men and women between 18-44 are the primary users of Instagram, since a majority of them grew up with it, which is another reason why the optimal range for Nike’s campaign is between 20-45. This graph, courtesy of Statista, illustrates the distribution of Instagram users as of April 2024 - which has ages 18-44 as the clear majority.
- Within the United States, living within near or in metropolitan areas: While Nike is a global brand, its primary focus for this campaign is likely within the United States for several reasons. The United States is not only one of the biggest consumer-based countries, it also houses the largest amount of runners, races, and sports markets on the planet. In a case study done by RunRepeat,
“the United States is the country with the biggest number of race runners but from the countries with most participants, its the slowest.”
RunRepeat would also agree for Nike’s target audience to be as old as 40.
“Runners have never been older. The average age of runners in 1986 ws 35.2 and in 2018 it is 39.3. This could be due to the fact that runners have longer racing careers, and also that people are welcome to start racing at an older age.”
This graph below illustrates their point, and it is likely for this trend to continue upwards as running begins to infiltrate many friend groups, industries, countries, and all over the world.
Nike created one of its most engaging marketing campaigns to date, receiving over 3000 comments and over 300,000 likes across three videos on its Instagram accounts. But how did Nike capture this great feedback, and how come it shouldn’t be a surprise that its latest campaign did this well?
- Stressed Engagement Over Conversions: Nike made a stand on how it views running, and its byproduct created a refreshing set of content that many Nike customers have never seen before. Customers who love running, and even those who hate running, were able to find common ground on the adversities that average athlete discovers when they lace up for a few miles. The secret is in unity, a secret that Nike needs to treasure in upcoming campaigns…but more on that later.
- Sharing Emotional Stereotypes That Foster New Relationships: No one enjoys running, and that is okay! In fact, Nike went a step further by embracing that fact by making an entire marketing campaign around shared stereotypes relating to running. Of the thousands of comments received, the vast majority were positive, reflecting their same thoughts that were expressed in Nike’s videos.
“ I LOVE this new campaign! Never felt so represented” - Instagram follower
“You nailed this new campaign because it speaks directly to every runner…beginners, pros, marathoners. Loving it!!!!! 👏 🚀
Despite great feedback and engagement, Nike’s shortcomings are oftentimes overlooked because of how polarizing Nike is on a global scale. But what was missing? How can Nike learn from this campaign and apply it towards its future projects? Let’s find out:
- Unclear Objectives and Timing: This campaign came off the heels of a widely successful Winning Isn’t for Everyone marketing campaign that debuted during the 2024 Summer Olympics. This Nike campaign was stated to last the duration of the summer, which raises the question if its newest campaign is an entirely new project, or just an extension of its predecessor? Of course, timing is everything. If Nike wanted to have two separate campaigns during the summer, this could have been extended into parts of the spring and fall to have an appropriate fit. Having three months to roll out two significant marketing campaigns, with one of them for the Olympics, is too short of a window. This would have been a great fall campaign, but that is a conditional thought until we see what Nike has up their sleeve.- Promoted Negative Connotations: Unity is one of the strongest focal points to leverage in a marketing campaign, but it can leave a sour impression for customers if it happens to be in a negative lens. The vast majority of this campaign showcased the hardest parts of running: getting up at the crack of dawn, running when you’re tired, running the rain, vomiting mid-run, the list goes on. The concept for this campaign is great, and should still be utilized, but Nike’s aim was off the mark. What should they have done instead? More on that in a second.
- Missing Call-to-Action (CTA): While this ad was clearly for impression and brand awareness, the most crucial part of any campaign is to have a CTA that directs audiences to a website, product page, another form of media, etc. Without a CTA, marketing campaigns go from a flowing river to a standstill pond. With nowhere for customers to go, the likely path for this campaign is to like and comment on the post, and continue scrolling. A missing CTA also makes it a greater challenge for the marketing team to measure the performance of this campaign. It’s hard to grade a test if there isn’t a grading system to follow - luckily, this is an easy fix.
Nike is reaching the peak of a corporate rollercoaster that can go one of two ways: it can either make a recovery and have an incredible comeback story, or it can descend rapidly without having a contingency plan. Yes, on paper, Nike grew 1% this past fiscal year; but the charts cannot mask the shortcomings the brand has endured over the past few years. As shown in these stock charts from Yahoo! Finance, Nike’s stock price is down 20% YTD, 19% from the past year, and over 8% in the past five years. Coupled with the several rounds of layoffs, and Nike has found themselves in hot water that not even Travis Scott Jordan 1’s could bring them out of.
Fortunately for Nike, they have a great opportunity to make a significant turnaround and create a new renaissance of the brand. Yes, it may involve in shifting leadership or corporate organization, but it is also rooted within the brand’s marketing strategy.
There are thousands of solutions Nike can implement to solve their current areas of concern. However, these are the key considerations Nike should examine if they want to start a fresh, exciting rebrand of the world’s largest and greatest sportswear company.
- Embrace & Scale Relational Content: Not only has this been proven to work within this Winning Isn’t Comfortable campaign, but this has proven to work for hundreds of companies of all sizes. The average consumer oftentimes think of themselves as normal; so if Nike can bring unity to what is normal about running, basketball, golf, tennis, etc in positive lights, Nike will turn its normal campaigns into a TRANSCENDING company that is even better than they have ever been. The relational, stereotype route has worked for Nike, and scaling its relational content should be the cornerstone of its future marketing campaigns.- Restrategize Influencer Marketing: Does it work? Yes. Is it valuable? Also yes. But is it overdone? Unfortunately, yes. Nike has reached the point to where its customers have stopped converting because they feel so far removed from those who are promoting Nike’s new line of products. Like the last point mentioned, if the average thinks of themselves as normal, is it fair to take a abnormal individual like LeBron James, Sabrina Ionescu, A’ja Wilson, etc and put them in the campaigns?
Instead of trying to squeeze the influencer marketing lemon to its capacity, it should be leveraged as the ‘heavy hitter’ ad that gets everyone’s attention. You’re not going to wear your racing shoes as a daily trainer, use practice balls during a golf tournament, or wear Kobe 8’s outside. Rather, you adjust your approach based on your environment. If Nike realigns its approach, it will not only bounce back from falling revenues, but will also build a much stronger bond with both its customers and athletes.
Despite the rocky waters, Nike has found the lighthouse amidst the corporate storm with its marketing strategies for the Winning Isn’t Comfortable campaign. The blend of relational content, exclusive social advertising, and engagement-focused objectives has been a successful formula that Nike must utilize should it wish to spark a corporate rebrand. The move from professional, influencer-centric content is now shifting towards more relatable, light-hearted content; and Nike has the chance to become an industry-first mover. In a world where everyone is looking to fit in, this new campaign has sparked Nike to stand out among the sportswear supergiants. Winning isn’t comfortable, and this new step for Nike is one small step into uncomfort, yet one giant step towards its corporate renaissance.