- A few days before the start of the US Open, Nike and AKQA presented one of the pieces of the campaign to celebrate the brand’s 50 years: “Never Done Evolving”.
- The protagonist of this first installment is Serena Williams, who would retire after the Grand Slam.
- The campaign uses Artificial Intelligence to face two versions of the tennis player: the one from 1999 against the one from 2017.
Almost in parallel with the announcement of Serena Williams From “evolving” away from tennis weeks before the start of the US Open (speculated to be his last tournament), Nike unveiled a disruptive advertising campaign.
That’s right, hand in hand with the AKQA agency, the brand that sponsors the tennis player presented a campaign that highlights how her game has evolved facing two versions of Serena Williams: the one who won her first Grand Slam in 1999 compared to the one that obtained another in 2017.
The campaign is part of the sports brand’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The game, generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, is a virtual exhibition that shows the constant evolution of Williamsalways on par with Nike.
At the same time, AKQA revealed the project that celebrates 50 years of Nike. Is named “Never Done Evolving” (“Never stop evolving”).
In addition to Serena Williams, the campaign will be repeated with other legendary athletes who have been part of the Nike client portfolio.
“Never Done Evolving”the new Nike campaign (beyond Serena Williams)
The bell “Never Done Evolving” that has the “two Serenas” as protagonists is an 8:30 minute video that was generated, according to the brand, through the technique of vid2player. He participated in Stanford University.
In the recreation, the Serena who won the first Grand Slam in 1999 she is measured against Serena from the last Open she won, the Australian Open in 2017.
As detailed by AKQA, to recreate the match they used 130 thousand matches. The game aired live on YouTube on August 11.
To bring the campaign to life, Nike and AKQA worked in concert with studios from melbourne (Australia), Portland (USA) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).
AKQA used the technique of vid2player and harnessed the machine learning tools of Artificial Intelligence to bring his style of play to life. Williams.
Decision making, reactivity and agility were analyzed based on the videos of the matches.
Nike, meanwhile, rendered two virtual versions of the tennis player.
Antecedent
It is not a novelty. He used the same idea Michelob Ultra when he faced John McEnroe against avatars of himself.
In the campaign, Nike says that “Serena Williams has redefined what it means to be a champion. His legacy has transcended sports, inspiring several generations. We look forward to continuing our long relationship with him and thank him for all he has done and will do in the future.”
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