Nike revealed its first TVC ‘Yards' in India after the popular ‘Street Cricket' (Traffic Jam, 2007) commercial on Wednesday, during the India-Pakistan semi-final.
The TVC is part of a multi-media campaign on social and broadcast media, and was unveiled on Nike's Facebook cricket page before airing on the match.
The company said the campaign will air on Star Sports, Star Cricket, and other sport, entertainment, and news channels.
The film, which features M. S. Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Sreesanth and Yuvraj Singh, attempts to capture the relationship between the street-style cricket played by youth across the country and the stadium-cricket played by the India team.
Bleed Blue
Mr Sanjay Gangopadhyay, Marketing Director, Nike India Pvt Ltd, said, “Cricket is a unifying force that represents dreams fulfilled and barriers broken. Nike's new film captures this idea by creating an authentic visual link from the young cricket crazy kids to the sport's elite athletes. The ad is yet another milestone in Nike's deep connection to cricket in India and we are confident that it will stir the emotions of ‘Bleed Blue.'”
Bleed Blue, Nike's current cricket brand campaign, seeks to bring to life the passion and obsession for the sport shared by Indian cricketers and their fans through consumer events, grassroots outreach, and social networking.
Bleed Blue has been driven online via nikecricket.in and the brand's Facebook page since October 2010.
In five months, Nike Cricket on Facebook garnered over a million fans (1,057,080), and claims to be growing at the rate of around 20,000 new fans a day through the World cup 2011.
Digital handprints
The brand has got over 11 million digital handprints from cricket fans.
The ‘Yards' film has been created by JWT India, written by Mr Senthil Kumar, ECD, JWT India, and directed by Mr Omri Cohen.