CASE STUDY: How Nike promoted self-confidence for young women in China

Background
Nike Women’s target audience is 19- to 25-year-old women who are transitioning into adulthood. Unfortunately for both W+K and Nike, young women in China, "Either hate sport or just don't have time for it," said Charinee Chairasmisak, a planner with W+K China who worked on the campaign. 

"In order to make sport more relevant, we decided to look at what are some of the key insights that rings true to them," Chairasmisak said. 

The agency learnt that women in China face pressure from society, families, friends or boyfriends and this has the power to affect how they feel about themselves, sometimes resulting in insecurity.

"So we came up with the idea, 'You don't know how amazing you could be' to address the lack of confidence," she said. "We want to let girls know that they ARE amazing the way they are, but in order to see and feel it for themselves, they will have to be proactive about it, and sport is one way that can help them get there."

Aim
The company set out to create an image of Nike Women who make sport and fitness a part of their lifestyle. Through a Nike Online Game platform, the campaign aimed to encourage young women across Greater China to complete sport-related missions and get rewarded in return.

Execution
Along with agency partners Mindshare and Razorfish, Nike built a mini site during the pre-launch phase (28 February - 7 March) that hosted a video  featuring Taiwanese singer Ella Chen (a member of the trio S.H.E) explaining the campaign's 'manifesto' of defining her potential through sports. Along with the video, there was also a personality test game. 

The game site was officially launched on 8 March, coinciding with International Women's Day. Nike designed a set of Nike Women limited bracelets to reward young women for participating. Five coloured bracelets represented five stages the participants completed.

Results
The game site attracted more than 760,000 users. Around 8,500 young women signed up on the official launch day. Throughout the campaign period (March - June), Nike attracted a total of 50,616 registered players. The phrase “一起Amazing” has been mentioned more than 9,000 times within Weibo and still continues to grow after the campaign's end.