Millennial Values Drive the Nike Kaepernick Campaign

Colin Kaepernick is the face of Nike’s 30th annual “Just Do It” campaign. And it took all of 6 seconds, (about the time needed to read and comprehend Kaepernick’s tweet to that effect) for the campaign to catch fire and explode on social media. It read: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt”
 
What makes this so incendiary is Kaepernick is also the face of the ‘take-a-knee’ campaign in the NFL. He lost his job as a starting quarterback because he refused to stand for the pre-game Star Spangle Banner in 2016. He says he was protesting racial injustice in the United States. He hasn’t been able land a pro-football job since.
 
The reaction, on both sides, is entirely predictable. At one extreme there are those who are burning their Nike apparel, some have even found it necessary to share video of them urinating on their shoes. Otherwise, there is a legion of  converts vowing to make Nike their brand of choice for athletic wear.
 
I have little doubt that this will soon be the subject of a presidential tweet that will slam “failing Nike” and raise this ‘elitist campaign’ to a capitol offense against the POTUS (people of the United States), not to mention a personal affront to the White House resident.
 
In the clichéd short term – Nike wins when you consider all the earned media its enjoying. Good or bad, the discussion and comment about the campaign will be on cable news teleprompters for days. This is the opening week of the NFL regular season after all, so it will reignite the interest and attention in what made Colin Kaepernick famous (or infamous) to non-football enthusiasts.
 
So, it’s easy to say Nike’s opportunistic and timely in it’s use of Kaepernick. But it’s more than that.
 
This makes perfect sense for the Nike brand. Nike isn’t about running shoes or hockey helmets or sweat-wicking workout wear.

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The Nike brand is about accomplishment. It’s about you feeling like you’re equipped and confident to take on challenges that take you our of your comfort zone.

It’s also about you doing the right thing – whatever you think that may be. One campaign encouraged us to let girls play organized sports – Just Do It. Another highlighted an elite athlete who ran 80 miles a week and 10 marathons and year; he lived with HIV – Just Do It.
 
So the Kaepernick campaign isn’t out of character for Nike. Nor would I say is it all that risky. The notion that Kaepernick stood up for something he believed in, that was beyond himself, is a growing trend in athletic marketing.
 
The emphasis is on unselfishness rather than winning at all cost.
 
Graeme Newell is the President of 602 Communications; he specializes in emotional branding. He says we’re all familiar with sports marketing campaigns that focused on winning as an individual accomplishment. Teamwork isn’t part of the narrative.
 
But that’s changing since Millennials have asserted themselves as a primary market for sports gear. Newell says advertising to that demographic is changing the definition of winning.  He points to a Nike ad from 2014 in which Lebron James wins for his team and his community.

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Millennial values have forced  the marketing narrative to shift from me to we. Newell says Nike’s not alone. There is a growing list of purpose driven companies that have reformed their business model to capture that shift. It affects everything from hiring protocols to customer engagement. Their success is based on their ability to make their brand about their consumers’ experience.
 
Nike saw this coming years ago. If there were a brand for emotional branding – it would be Nike.
 
You’re missing the point if you think this new campaign is about Kaepernick’s brand. It’s about a powerful Millennial market. It’s about a company willing to take its own advice to confidently venture outside of the comfort zone and “Just Do It”.