Air Max Day 2020

The newspapers are filling up with stories about something eerily close to Verona, and this nasty virus 🦠😷🦠😷🦠 they're all talking about seems to be airborne.

Time for a serious pivot. We had to pull something new out of the air—and fast.

The art of creative management lies in being flexible and responsive. Briefs change, budgets get cut, timelines tighten, and meetings get rescheduled—it's all part of the game. While most commercial planning includes some level of contingency, the gale-force turbulence that hit us all in 2020 was beyond anything we could have anticipated. Even the biggest businesses had to make quick turns, adapt, and deploy new tactics to navigate these rough seas.

With our fleet of cultural influencers stuck at home in lockdown, we created a new ‘Isolation Tactical’ approach. On the surface, it was a simple call for some light-hearted community fun, shared across social media: influencers extending Air Max-inspired challenges to their networks. “How many Air Maxes can you balance on one foot?” asked Kailem. “How high can you jump in your AIRS?” grinned Joel from Cheeky Sport.

Everything was shot on the influencers’ phones at home—a new kind of rough-and-raw for Nike, and it worked beautifully. The emojis flew, and the fun and camaraderie in people’s responses, shares, likes, and loves provided more than just the warm glow of a well-executed campaign.

Beneath it all, Nike delivered an uplifting message of solidarity to its influencer-partners and a positive, energized “keep moving, keep doing it” message to the world during a dark, fear-filled time. This campaign was more than just casual dialogue; it was Nike showing up naturally and tangibly in people’s lockdown lives. What initially seemed like a potential shipwreck became a lifeline from Nike to its fans: “We get it—we’re all in the same boat. Let’s have some fun while we're at it.”