Nike’s Joining the Eshop Fray?

Background:

There was some enormous news this past week in the esports world, the globally iconic sportswear brand Nike joined the conversation. Nike launched an eSports ad this week, yes, the monolithic entity Nike! The ad hones in on the Chinese gaming industry and the ever so popular eSports title; League of Legends.

This could be a huge gateway step towards Nike actually signing eSports athletes to their brand. Nike is the world’s biggest sports brand with an audience and reach that is nearly unlimited. If they start to tap into this market, it could see huge gains in exposure and interest due to their promotion capabilities.

Nike recently has begun producing jerseys and sponsoring over the past few years, but adding marketing to their agenda is big news. Nike commercials are not something that are just seen locally or don’t catch your eyes. Nike commercials are the type that can make headlines during Super Bowl’s, when commercials are at their peak in America. They have the power to educate and influence millions upon millions, it very well may be billions at this point.

The ad focuses on gamers exercising and training in order to be able to perform and play at peak levels. It begins with some of the world’s most renowned eSports players being flown out to a remote training facility.

Brand Emergence:

Nike is focusing on incorporating what they are familiar with into this new territory, and they also received some help doing so. Appearing in the commercial is retired eSports legend, Uzi, who was, and still very much so is, a League of Legends icon. Back in 2018, he even signed an endorsement deal with the brand, being one of the players to help open that door. Uzi has been the face of Nike in terms of their mergence into the esports realm, he has appeared in many of their campaigns and attempts at marketing their interest in esports thus far. In this ad, Uzi is tasked with running the facility and getting everybody into shape.

The ad is also quite funny, managing to promote it’s agenda while mixing in a few humorous bits here and there. The exercise and routines the players go through are shown through over-exaggerated methods that are comedic and entertaining. This is a fun pitch to their intended target audience, they are not trying to make gamers feel guilty or bad but more so attracted and entertained, in order to pique interest.

Nike definitely sees the upside in getting involved in this industry, from their esports clothing sponsorships they’ve rewarded recently to now advertising the sport in general, expect to see some more major headlines from Nike within the industry coming your way soon. They also clearly have developed a plan that will allow them to appeal to both gamers who want to exercise and people who exercise who want to game, the ad was directed at both. Nike is hoping to bring some of it’s already massive consumer base to their new developments within esports it seems!