The starting point of the Nike communications campaign for the 2010 World Cup was a piece of statistical data: out of the 40 million people in Argentina, 12.5 million were born after 1986, year in which Argentina won its last World Cup. On the other hand, the ’86 team represents the last great national soccer team. But reality shows that 24 years have elapsed since 1986, and youngsters of such age did not witness the ’86 victory. This is the reason why Nike aimed to conduct a study at domestic level in order to become familiar with the opinions and expectations of the Argentine people vis-à-vis the World Cup. The main finding was as follows: 8 out of 10 Argentineans want to leave the ’86 memory behind and win the 2010 World Cup.This study enabled Nike to discover other premises that marked a turning point, by showing that youngsters particularly take up an attitude of looking ahead and writing a new page in history. Then, Nike developed a mass communications and PR campaign, under the concept "Let’s leave 1986 behind and make history in 2010". There were 93 publications in printed media, radio and TV broadcasts.

The campaign was based on two communications instances:1) Conducting a quantitative/ qualitative research study at national level, in conjunction with TNS Gallup. Face-to-face interviews were made with 800 youngsters of age 17 or over, from the City of Buenos Aires, provinces, and localities nationwide. One should note the following highlight findings: • More than half of Argentineans state that being champions in 2010 is more important than having won the World Cup in 1986 • 51% of youngsters between 17 and 25 years old do not remember anything about the ’86 world championshipAs regards campaign executions, a breakfast meeting with the Press was organized to present the research study findings, and one-on-one meetings were held to cover stories in the main media.2) Expanding the print advertising campaign and the commercial. Printed pieces, a TV ad, and photograms were sent to sports and advertising media.

Nike obtained 93 clippings regarding the conduct of the research study, the 1986 print advertising campaign and Plaza de Mayo. This translated into 20,756,870 contacts. The same day on which the study was presented, La Nación newspaper published a cover story mentioning the study.One should underscored the significance of this topic, which permeated the usual media, and became a matter of interest for renowned opinion leaders who made comments on this issue and installed it in the society. Indeed, Diego Maradona himself made reference to the Nike campaign, by stating the following at a press conference held before the soccer match between Argentina and Germany:(…) I believe that ’86 has been left behind, the ’86 cup was wonderful, almost heroic, it was very nice for all of us, but Argentina has not won anything for 24 years. I wish that Argentina will again believe in new heroes (…)