With all eyes on AUNZ for the biggest sporting moment in history and the Matildas’ influence at its peak, Nike wanted to inspire the next generation of young women and girls to create a vision of sport. Our challenge was to give those at a grassroots level a platform to tell their story. Not only those who played, but the fans, supporters and allies around the game.

We needed to find a way to reach and connect with the next generation of female footballers to create a lasting legacy off the back of the World Cup by being the sponsor the moment deserved but didn’t have. We knew that to win the tournament with her, we needed to win the game on TikTok.

The central question became how could Nike help unearth these stories from a community, and tell a reimagined story around victory and the future of sport?

Nike presents 1000 Victories - a TikTok community story.

A completely original format, the 19-part asynchronous TikTok documentary was made with the community, for the community - with their stories at the heart of it. Nike’s brand served as a platform to elevate these incredible people and their victories.

Powered by UGC and directed by up and coming Australian talent Melle Branson aka Till Death, the platform-first documentary celebrated and showcased victory in the football community from all over AUNZ, revealing the game's beauty and its impact on broader culture and society.

Rather than produce a piece of branded content that lived on TikTok, we passed the mic to the audience to document their own story.

TikTok users have forged a new language of part-by-part storytelling that has transformed the documentary style of an entire generation.

Using a combination of community interviews, editorial analysis and trend reports, our research uncovered that the young female football community felt they couldn’t document or celebrate their stories of victory in the way they wanted to - often feeling the most susceptible to judgment or criticism. Victory had long been defined as a big win or moment.

We took this insight and new way users are telling stories on TikTok and used the platform as a place to source real stories, casting native creators who formed the collective recruited to help co-create 1000 Victories.

This meant working with a diverse group of creators in and around football to act as the bridge between brand and audience. As co-creators, they would spark and inspire storytelling, shaping a new definition around victory.

To launch, Matildas Vice Captain, Steph Catley, asked - “Show me what victory looks like to you?”. Additional UGC awareness drivers through Nike talent and media, including digital banners and CTAs in-stadium at the Matildas' final friendly before the World Cup, led to hundreds of responses pouring in directly from the women’s football community of AUNZ.

Each 15-60 second episode, with its own mini-narrative, contributed to an 11 minute community story that came to life part by part. It could be viewed non-consecutively and in any combination or volume as dictated by the FYP.

1000 Victories premiered live on TikTok during the final week of the World Cup to show the future of the game as told by the community players, supporters, and allies. The series now lives on as an episodic playlist that is preserved as a representation of that moment in time, capturing the time sport changed forever.

FIRSTS:

First community powered documentary on TikTok

First content live broadcast on the Nike global channel

First global TikTok Live in two years

First asynchronous Nike documentary

The first-ever community-powered documentary on TikTok

Cultural impact:

Viewed by 50 million+ people globally, most viewed content on Nike global TikTok

12.4% increase in brand association that "Nike is a brand that is invested in the future of women in sport"

#1000Victories reached more than 3 in every 5 Aussies on TikTok

DJ Nina Las Vegas’s original sound for the campaign generated over 5.5M views and 42K likes

Commercial impact:

Gen-Z engagement on TikTok up 172% globally

3x more Matildas jerseys sold vs the Socceroos at the last World Cup, and 13x increase vs the previous Matildas jersey

78M+ total views to #1000Victories

27.5% increase in ad awareness (benchmark: 7.3%) putting Nike in the top 20% of all advertisers