Tag archives: nike

Introducing Fulvio Varnacano

I apologise if my latest work I’m posting about is for Italians only… One of the funniest shooting I’ve ever done, a video for Nike Live starring Fabio Cannavaro (yes, that’s him!).

A bit of background to let you understand the story: when Cannavaro was a kid, he used to be a ball-boy of Napoli when Maradona was playing there. Cannavaro grew up and became the great footballer we all know, while a friend of him decided to pursue a career as ball boy, becoming the best ball boy of the world. The short documentary above tells his story. If you like him, you can become a friend of Fulvio Varnacano on Facebook. The creative idea is by Carlo Cavallone and Alvaro Sotomayor from W+K Amsterdam, who also directed the video and unveiled Fabio’s acting talent.

Nike: Take It To The Next Level

Nike just released the full version (2 minutes) of a spot for the upcoming UEFA 2008 European Championship football. The ‘Take It To The Next Level’ commercial is directed by Guy Ritchy and shows a first person journey through several teams and players, including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Nani and Arsene Wenger.

The Run Revolution

From Japan, by Wieden + Kennedy Tokio, the latest Nike ad for Nike+. Ideal for runners looking for inspiration in spring.

Take the challenge and win the NBA

I’d like to share with you an online project we are currently running here in Italy. This year we are going to have two Italian Nike players in the NBA, so we’ve decided to celebrate them and allow two of their fans to fly to the US and attend the match Toronto vs Golden State (the teams where “our” players play).

First of all, when you get on the site you have to decide if you support Bargnani or Belinelli. Then you face four challenges, that mix user generated content, an advergame and basketball knowledge.

Read more…

Nike Second Coming

This is not new, we saw video mash-ups already, but if you’re a basketball fan, you will like it anyway. Nike Second Coming, is an interactive experience which allows users to create their own basketball Tv spot. You can select from a wide range of short clips, and play with your heroes creating a video to share with your friends or on your blog. As said, nothing new, it’s again about proposing tools for user-generated content, but it’s very well done (I like the stylish/mysterious black design) and I believe it will be also very much appreciated by the young audiences.

Take it easy, John

In my January “madness” I didn’t manage writing about this campaign Olivier from DDB Paris forwarded me. It’s a series of in-store ads they’ve created thinking about John McEnroe’s unique attitude on the tennis court. I’m not sure if they’re ment to motivate the store staff or simply to amuse the customers…

Read more…

Nike, Laser Engineered

From Paris, a cool outdoor campaign by DDB for Nike… the new shoes are Laser Engineered, you can really tell…

Read more…

Nike, hybrid but lovely (and smart)

Nike has recently put online The Rise of the Hybrids, a series of three lovely animated webfilms to promote its Air Max 360 shoes “One Time Only”. Created by HunterGatherer, the videos are, as I said, lovely. They combine different art styles such as cubism and children book illustrations to create an animated path through evolution. I’m not sure the added value they provide to the shoes promotion, but I like them as an expression of art, and therefore as they support Nike as a brand.

Read more…

Google celebrates football with Nike

Two giants recently got married: Google and Nike have partnered to launch Joga an online community for football fans “by invitation only”. Since it applies the same concept of Gmail, I cannot exactly tell you what the site is about (I haven’t been invited in yet . But I can unveil (?!) the site will be available in 14 languages. The site is the next step in Nike’s Joga Bonito campaign on the way to Germany 2006. A series of short videos (by Wieden & Kennedy) is also part of the effort.

Want to be like Mike

Ok, if you stopped laughing after watching Volkswagen’s commercials, now I will make you cry with this Nike ad. If you played basketball and loved Michael Jordan, this ad will take you back to the time when you “wanted to be like Mike”. Absolutely amazing.