The Air Max Graffiti Stores turned the city walls into Nike Stores inaugurating a new ambient media: the feet of graffiti characters. More than reaching our target in places never available before, we became a permanent part of the street art scene of São Paulo. The street stunt was supported by a social media strategy that led to a city page and physical activations, ending up in the pre-sale purchase by geolocation. The idea was not only enhanced and amplified by this game-changing channel strategy but was only possible thanks to this new use of media.

Nike wanted to leverage the new Air Max drops to increase relevance and sales on their e-commerce in Brazil. Since Air Max is a pivotal part of street culture, Nike asked us to create a phygital activation in São Paulo to tap into the urban creativity and drive a strategic target audience to NIKE.COM. Meanwhile, the city was living a war on graffiti as the governor erased hundreds of them. We then saw an opportunity to add the new Air Max in the street art scene by hacking the ones that survived.

São Paulo is known as the Graffiti Capital of the World and many of its famous characters painted on the walls have feet. So we invited artists to update their own existing graffitis by adding the new Air Max sneakers on them - and the only way to get the sneakers on a limited pre-sale was to visit the walls, access Nike.com and unlock the purchase through geolocation. The Air Max Graffiti Stores transformed the city walls into Nike Stores, turning the brand’s e-commerce into a cultural experience.

Nike wanted to launch their new Air Max models by tapping into the street culture of São Paulo. So, no better way to do it than endorsed by influencers and celebrities, right? Well, not quite. We decided the graffiti characters should be the first ones to wear the new Air Max sneakers. We chose arts and locations in different regions of the city considering the demographic, in order to increase the customers' affinity with the brand and engagement with the project. The Air Max Graffiti Stores inaugurated a new consumer journey combining digital and physical activations.

In partnership with Instagrafite, Brazil’s biggest street art collective, we invited 4 artists to update their own existing characters with the new Air Max models. Every week, a new drop, in different regions of the city. To spread the word about the project we made a film and gave life to our most iconic character, showing off his new Air Max around town. The film lead to a city page with all the information about the grafittis, enabling the pre-sale purchase by geolocation. Graffiti fans loved it but sneakerheads got crazy. And when we were planning the next drops the Governor got convicted for erasing the grafittis. Backed by that court decision we brought back 6 iconic characters erased by him, wearing 6 new Air Max models. Now the mural lives on as cultural heritage to the city.

With 10 drops and counting, The Air Max Graffiti Stores became a profitable platform for new Nike releases. The project impacted more than 80M people on social media and increased the Nike.com visits in more than 22% (Local page access vs 2018) and the Air Max sales in more than 32% (revenue in Brazil vs 2018). More than reaching great numbers, the Air Max also became part of the street art scene of São Paulo.

Sneakerheads have a very unique behavior: they wait anxiously for exclusive drops, making endless queues in front of stores. By transforming the city walls into Nike stores, we leverage the Air Max drops not only to increase NIKE.COM sales and relevance but to drive this specific audience to a cultural experience in the graffiti scene of São Paulo, which represents the pivotal concepts of Air Max - street culture and urban creativity. During the campaign, the Governor got convicted for erasing graffitis and we saw an opportunity to bring back 6 iconic characters erased by him, wearing 6 new Air Max models. Now the collaborative mural lives on as cultural heritage to the city, right next to MASP, the most important museum of Brazil.