Brief!

Nike’s overall objective was, to find a way to connect with female runners and get them talking about Nike. The Nike brand was strong within the running market, but Asics was perceived as the more genuine brand especially for committed female runners and their shoes.

Nike had always designed shoes specifically for women’s feet, but had never effectively communicated their commitment to real runners, in particular females.

What we did!

The project with a detailed strategic process that identified running appeared to be an individual pursuit, dominated by men. Where competitors had a distinct advantage over Nike was simply through current market perception. The big insight was that we could alter this perception appealing more to the natural female psyche and giving them a forum to communicate their passion.

The strategy was to use real female runners to promote and grow the community, but in order to really build energy around Nike’s commitment to the female runner we needed a BOLD concept to ignite the community and build the conversation. So, Nike decided to challenge its community to a 13-kilometre race for female runners. This would be the anchor around which the community would be built. It also gave the community an even broader challenge, by making the run a call to action to reclaim the night – a time where women feel most vulnerable to participate in their favourite pursuit.

And ‘She Runs the Night’ – was born!

Results!

After 16,000 likes and 14,000 people talking about the run within one month, it was clear the community was on to something powerful. A community of 54,762 female runners was built, 98% of the digital community positively engaged with Nike and 90% of runners surveyed via Facebook after the event would participate again.

With 87% of young female runners running with their phone, an app with content generated by Nike and the runners was made available to the women to provide further inspiration and motivation.