Nike All Conditions Gear brought peace to people when they needed it the most.
Nike’s All Conditions Gear (ACG) sub-brand has one simple mission: reconnect the youth with planet Earth. Too frequently, people think of the outdoors as the space for middle aged, rich white people. But we aim to show that the outdoors is accessible for everyone, especially those who live in the city. The wonder and awe of the outdoors brings relaxation, focus and empowerment.
WINNER: 100th Annual ADC Awards - Bronze
SHORTLIST: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity - Film
2020 was a stressful, difficult year for many reasons. And as is often the case, young people bore the brunt of this stress. With our 2020 campaign, ACG brought a measure of peace to those who needed it most. Nature is free, unconstrained, spontaneous, and best of all: available to everyone.
The centerpiece of the campaign is our hero video. This informational guide features Gen Z creatives escaping to Smith Rock, OR to find their peace. Contained within are four specific How To’s, each centered on a tangible way our target can achieve peace. Shot on film for an analog look and feel, and narrated in a style that asks, “What if Christopher Guest made a nature mockumentary?”, the video connected with the audience in a way beyond any previous ACG work.
YouTube is where longform storytelling thrives, so we posted the Hero Film as well as extended versions of the cutdowns.
Because ACG does not have dedicated social accounts, we teamed up with Nike Sportswear to bring peace to a new audience. These :60 cutdowns neatly encapsulated the campaign in easy to follow How To format, making them snackable and shareable.
On Instagram Stories, we built out the ACG story even more, exposing a new audience to our ethos, showing how we use nature to design our products, and giving them a taste of the collection.
We made sure to use the native features of IG Stories to allow the audience to interact with us and share their peace. You can watch all the ACG Instagram Stories here.
Posting to the Nike Sportswear audience was a test for ACG; how would the hypebeasts react to our genial message? The answer was a resounding “😌”.
Even the commenters on YouTube liked it, and those people don’t like anything.
Why not bring peace to the shopping experience, too? In Nike’s House of Innovation stores in NYC and Paris, ACG built out a completely peaceful world.
At the ACG Base Camp experience, we created a virtual trail guide, allowing customers to go from point to point on a journey through Smith Rock using their smart phones.
The elevated experience showcased product benefits in an in-depth, uniquely ACG way.
A wall of screens played the soothing videos for customers as they transported themselves thousands of miles away to peaceful Smith Rock.
And at the end of the journey, campers could unlock a VR Sasquatch to share with their friends.
Not actual size ;)
Digital is where the campaign really shined. This was the most in-depth creative execution in ACG history, with more than fifty executions across .com, email, and the Nike app.
On the ACG landing page, we created a swipe-able takeover (see mobile and .com screenshots above), filled with tons of peaceful content.
We created digital versions of the How To guides, now with 76% more Peace than before.
A selection from the How To guides.
You can’t find peace until you learn the basics. That’s why we created “The ABCs of ACG”, a handy primer on everything outdoors.
Our Behind the Design essay gave a personal look into our creative process. Months before the campaign, our intrepid team trekked to a snow-covered and inhospitable Smith Rock to do research. And we only almost died a few times.
Selections from the essay.
We also created custom product threads for the Nike app, with interactive videos showcasing product details and benefits. This helped drive sales and bring in new ACG fans from the wider Nike ecosystem.
Some more Nike App threads. I’m particularly proud of the Shakespeare one.
In true ACG fashion, we even made a physical copy of our work for the season. This limited guide was only available to media members who participated in a virtual camping trip, and at select ACG retailers. (Images courtesy Nico Sala)
Media took notice, too, promoting the work we’d done in creating peace during the stressful holiday season. Rolling Stone, Sneaker News, Complex and more posted stills and videos from our campaign during the rollout, bringing the peaceful message to even more people.
To extend the peaceful story, we partnered with Keith Charles, Kari Faux and their NYC-based crew. Keith created amazing photography and videos, documenting a trip from the city up to the Adirondacks. Poetry and images combined to form a moving story about inclusion and visibility in the outdoors. The story played out on multiple channels, including NikeNYC, Nike Sportswear, and the influencer accounts.
Keith produced two hero videos documenting his trip, featuring VO of poetry from @nnekajax and @rashaan.zip. Both videos beautifully capture the ethos of ACG and speak to our mission.
On Keith’s Instagram, he shared IGTV posts of both hero videos, images from the trip, and re-grammed the @nikesportswear shoutout, driving people to the article page.
Others who participated in the project shared videos, collages and images from the trip.
On @nikesportswear, we introduced Keith and his friend to a wide audience, posting snippets from the poetry and videos while driving to the .com experience.
NikeNYC re-grammed Keith’s IGTV video, and shouted out each member of the crew with a headshot and interactive questions to encourage fan participation.
On ACG’s .com hub and the Nike app, we created a rich media experience out of Keith’s content, utilizing his videos, photos, and poetry for an immersive community-led story.
The campaign was the most successful in ACG history, in visibility as well as sales. Seasonal ACG sales increased 344% year over year, with apparel sales increasing 120%. It’s safe to say everyone wanted a piece of our peace.
ROLES
Senior Copywriter - Michael Taylor
Art Direction - Nico Sala + Dante Carlos
Video Direction and Editing - Anton Du Preez
Video Production - Art School Athletics
Producer - Ashley Bay
Photography - Jerry Buttles