Nike Canada is attacking Toronto with its first made-in-Canada ad campaign to celebrate local heroes and the spirit of the company theme, ‘Just Do It.’
Coinciding with the launch last week of the campaign, called Toronto Attack, Nike also introduced a $1.5-million national charitable program called Nike P.L.A.Y. Canada.
Olympic rower Silken Laumann is honorary chairperson of Nike P.L.A.Y Canada, and the company is also hoping to get a male athlete, possibly Isiah Thomas, vice-president, basketball for the National Basketball Association’s fledgling team, the Toronto Raptors, involved as a volunteer.
Nike’s new regional marketing tactic is similar to one initiated by its Oregon-based parent in New York City two years ago.
Bill Redford, Nike Canada director of marketing, says if the campaign is successful in the biggest city in Canada, it can be adapted for use elsewhere.
‘In the past, we almost tried to be all things to all people, but now we’re focusing,’ Redford says.
‘We want to create an identity in major cities and feature that city so people know it’s not a u.s. campaign,’ he says.
Nike Canada’s advertising has traditionally been adapted u.s. creative from Wieden & Kennedy, of Portland, Ore.
The Toronto Attack campaign is the first real opportunity that Toronto agency Cossette Communication-Marketing has had to strut its stuff for Nike.
Redford says the integrated campaign is built around eight local Torontonians who embody the spirit of ‘Just Do It.’
‘We don’t have any celebrities in this,’ he says. ‘It’s about eight individuals from the Toronto area, everyday people who have some goals and accomplishments that people can identify with.
‘We’re not selling product. We’re selling Nike as a good company, and we want to create a tie between the consumer in Toronto and Nike.’
Whether the campaign is successful at creating a relationship with Toronto, residents and visitors cannot fail to notice the Nike invasion.
Cossette has blanketed Toronto with outdoor boards, transit and subway shelter posters, and wild posting.
Nine buses, painted with murals inside and out, and 10 subways cars feature Nike-only advertising.
Three 30-second tv spots, each centred on one individual, are now on-air.
The story of each ‘local hero’ is told with supers interspersed between black-and-white footage of the amateur athlete in action.
One features Ed Bacon, a 63-year-old marathon runner who competed in this year’s Shoppers Drug Mart Toronto Marathon, although he started to run only last year and trained for just six months.
Bacon finished last. But, he finished.
All of the advertising is punctuated with a variation of the well-known Nike checkmark logo. The checkmark is bracketed vertically by the letters ‘T’and ‘O.’
The Toronto effort runs into the fall.
During that time Nike will increase spending behind its corporate campaign in the rest of Canada.
Nike P.L.A.Y. Canada is a variation of a program set up by the u.s. parent in 1994 to get youths off the streets by helping to provide and fund safe athletic facilities, equipment and events.
In the u.s., the acronym p.l.a.y. stands for ‘Participate in the Lives of America’s Youth.’
It has been changed to ‘All Youth’ for the Canadian program.
Nike has committed $1.5 million over the next three years to the Nike P.L.A.Y. Canada fund.
Other sports marketing initiatives will be undertaken by the company to raise awareness and additional money for the fund.
Nike, for example, has tied up basketball in Canada for the next five years through official footwear supplier contracts with the nba’s Vancouver Grizzlies and the Raptors.
In the past, Nike has also been involved in a number of community sports programs and charities such as the Canadian Special Olympics for mentally handicapped athletes.
Redford says p.l.a.y. will help the firm concentrate its efforts where it will do the most good in the community.
A dedicated 1-800 number will provide information about the program, and disbursement of the funds to communities, decided by the P.L.A.Y. Canada Advisory Council, will be made quarterly.
A series of how-to guides called Help P.L.A.Y. will assist community volunteers in organizing basketball, triathalon, running and tennis events.
Nike also plans to reward its employees who volunteer at least eight hours of their time per month to work with youngsterss in sports and fitness activities.
Another part of p.l.a.y. is the Nike Re-Use-A-Shoe Playground Refurbishment Program.
This will involve sports retailers and community centres serving as locations for the collection of used athletic shoes for recycling.
Nike has formed a partnership with Dodge-Regupol, a company that has 20 years’ experience making athletic products, to break down the shoes to make and resurface play surfaces, including basketball courts.
