Virals of the year: Nike ramps up cause marketing with ‘Dream Crazier’

Nov 27, 2019 | Ads, Content marketing, Video, Viral

Following Nike’s divisive 2018 campaign ‘Dream Crazy’ featuring NFL star Colin Kaepernick, the sports giant launch the ‘Dream Crazier’ ad at the beginning of 2019, featuring Serna Williams, getting 11m views in the process.

Starring and narrated by tennis legend Serena Williams, the ad encourages women in sports to fight back against gender bias and unfair stereotyping.

The ad was created by longtime Nike creative partner Wieden + Kennedy Portland and debuted at the Oscars 2019.

Since going live in February, the “Dream Crazier” clip and others inspired by it have seen millions more views and engagements.

Nike also leveraged, directly and indirectly, the power of creators and media publishers. Working with Serena Williams on the ad and having the tennis star release it on her own Instagram created more buzz for the spot, while media companies like NowThis and Ellen were also able to throw the ad more love via their own distributions

Nike’s Twitter version of the ad boasts 31.6m total views and 655K engagements.

Talk show host Ellen and parodied the ad on Instagram getting 7.4m total views and more exposure for the brand.

Publisher NowThis shared the ad on its own platforms and was #3 on March 1 with 9.6m views. Its Facebook clip now has 21.5m views and is #2 most-watched clip related to “Dream Crazier,” as well as #2 in terms of V30 at 13.8m.

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