For the 30th Anniversary of “Just Do It”, Nike wanted to inspire a new generation of young athletes and youth overall to realize their potential through sport. Nike, the number one sports brand, wanted to bring to life its iconic idea and line, “Just Do It” in a fresh way, relevant to youth athletes as well as culture at large.

The “Dream Crazy” campaign celebrated athletes who pushed their sports forward, from household names like Serena Williams and LeBron James, to a girl who dreamed of playing linebacker on a high-school football team. The campaign was led by Colin Kaepernick, the controversial NFL quarterback who sacrificed his dream for an even bigger one when he knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality—and the whole thing was launched with a single social media post.

To inspire the next generation of athletes to “dream crazy”, we celebrated real athletes that have ignored conventional thinking and as a result have pushed the world forward. And because no athlete has dreamed crazier than Colin Kaepernick, we made him the face of the entire campaign and used his social channels to organically and authentically announce it to the world.

The campaign started with a tweet from Colin Kaepernick, timed just days before the launch of the NFL season where we before we launched the 2-minute film. This was immediately picked up by world media, setting the stage for the rest of the campaign. We then blanketed major cities around the US with billboards and posters celebrating our athletes, including location-specific executions. For example, a Colin Kaepernick billboard was placed in San Francisco, while a Serena Williams billboard was erected in Compton, California (her hometown).

The campaign immediately ignited debate across the country and throughout the world and Kaepernick’s tweet became a symbol of solidarity, shared by celebrities, athletes, politicians and fans. And while some launched a boycott against the Nike and burned their shoes, millions came to the brand’s defense and praised the campaign for being on “the right side of history”. The campaign saw Nike’s stock price rise to an all-time high and created $6 billion in brand value, making it the most successful campaign in the brand’s history.