Nike: #MakeEveryYardCount – crowdsourcing done right

Brands have dabbled in crowdsourcing in the past. Typically, the campaigns have been about inviting consumers to be creative folk asking them to render logos, write baselines and even write entire campaigns. The work for Doritos, especially during Super Bowl is hailed as proof of success of crowdsourcing as a concept. I have always had a dim view of crowdsourcing. Reason: I don’t think the results are worth it. If a logo creation is crowdsourced chances are some freelancers and general public who think they can design, will contribute. When it comes to ad campaigns, again freelancers and people who think they are copywriters will contribute. But they simply cannot be expected to have the expertise, experience and knowledge of professionals who are in the industry. In my view, crowdsourcing can work if the consumers are asked to source campaign ‘material’ in the form of footage, snaps and such. Even here, making the upload process is key. In the past I have seen campaigns encouraging consumers to contribute ‘ads’ have failed to generate big numbers because the (a) the task in itself was daunting (b) the process in which to upload content – be it films or images was not smooth, easy and free. Today, we have smartphones, 3G, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to the rescue.

And that’s the most wonderful aspect of the new Nike India campaign: Make Every Yard Count.

We feature 1440 such young cricketers with 2,25,000 crowd sourced moments from thousands of grounds across India. Every frame of the film depicts that one moment, where the cricket crazy youth of India has just one goal, to make every yard count.

The images were sourced through Facebook and Twitter. While ads set to a montage of cricketing visuals and foot tapping music have been done before, this one is special. The effort of stitching together these visuals in synch and in tune with an idea is applause worthy.

Agency: JWT, India

Congrats, Senthil. Riveting stuff.