ナイキジャパン | ざわつかせろ | 2016
Stop Losing Yourself in the Crowd / Nike Japan "Stir Them Up"
If someone stood up to give the opening oath at Koshien and said, "Please pay attention to me," the whole stadium would start buzzing. Nike knows exactly how to pick a fight.
The problem
High school baseball is a microcosm of Japanese culture. Under its strict hierarchy, individuals practice hard and make sacrifices for the sake of the team. Nike Japan wondered if there might be room, within all that, to shine a light on the individuality of the players giving it their all.
The insight
A culture that prizes group behavior demands a lot from its players, but it also takes away their individual voice. What Nike built into the oath was the idea of giving athletes back that voice.
The idea
"We hereby swear... actually, please pay attention to me." The crowd in the stands stirs, the cheering squads stir, the reporters stir, and everyone listening on the broadcast stirs too. Hideo Nomo lifts his head mid-massage, and Koji Uehara breaks into a smile as he listens in a taxi. Pulling all of that together in just 60 seconds is an incredibly powerful piece of construction.
What happened
It won the ACC Grand Prix and the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award. Jury chair Yasumichi Oka said it was a judging process that asked not whether the work was polished or influential, but whether it had actually delivered a message.
Afterthought
Both Nomo and Uehara are major leaguers who never played at Koshien. That's exactly why they've earned the right to smile when they hear this oath. Branding isn't something a single piece of film can build—it's the context Nike has built up over time that makes this message work.
