Nike Ad Launches Five-a-side Tournament

Nike is running a major new TV ad campaign around this week’s Champions League games featuring a host of professional stars taking on inner city players in a five-a-side match as the brand looks to launch a new nationwide football tournament.

Nike aims to enlist 16,000 players from across seven regions of the UK to take part in more than 200 five-a-side tournaments over eight weeks. Local winning teams progress to city finals ahead of an ultimate national final on 10th May.

The ‘Show Your 5’ ad campaign, which will break during Manchester United’s midweek game against Inter Milan, features the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole.

The ad, created by incumbent agency Wieden & Kennedy, features action apparently captured on CCTV cameras.

The campaign ties in with the sportswear company’s line of five-a-side clothing Nike 5 and aims to tap into the burgeoning growth of the game across the UK.

Digital marketing activity, developed by ad agency AKQA, has also begun with a pre-launch seeding of the campaign with a teaser clip on blogs and social networking websites.

Players in the tournament can download a widget, NikeFootball TV, which will automatically feed latest campaign and tournament information and build team profiles or see where rival teams are on an interactive map.

Media planning and buying for the campaign has been handled by Mindshare.