Despite being home to numerous world-class athletes, sports participation and passion remain comparatively low in Korea. But every couple of years during major international sporting events, viewership spikes, interest rises, and athletes have the chance to become cultural sensations. While the Asian Games may be less significant than the Olympics, over a dozen Nike athletes and teams competed in the Games with high hopes of returning home with medals. But more importantly, this was our opportunity to celebrate their individual and collective victories, expanding the vision of who and what victory includes, on and beyond the field. The goal? With the use of an already primed audience in social, raise profiles of our elite athletes, and begin the journey of shifting perceptions of everyday athletes, each of which should embrace owning their “win” in their own way.

While competitions are measured in medals, victory isn’t weighed in Gold, Silver, or Bronze – victory is in every play, every return, every moment learned, every moment you’re a better athlete than you were a second ago. Hence our work is called “Win Every Moment.”

Nike is on a mission to reframe what victory is, to really interrogate what “winning” means to the athletes themselves. Can victory be solely determined by gold, silver, bronze or is the process in itself a reflection of victory? Can you win the gold and still feel like you lost? Can a loss still be considered a victory? Who determines real victory?

Our work helps answer these questions through the athletes’ personal wins.

For this campaign, our purpose was to reimagine what a “victory” could be for everyday athletes but also for anyone. We utilized Nike Korea’s Instagram (launched one year prior) to post each athlete’s “Win Every Moment” series. In order to gather insights from the athletes, we were able to interview them and really understand their mindset on their victory, in their own words.

Through Nike Korea’s growing Instagram channel, we were able to target the everyday athletes who are cultural drivers. We hoped they would be inspired and act on their own terms, inspiring many others to redefine “victory.”

This 5-day series reached the average of 106.8K views and many re-posted and interacted with the comments. Some said “so cool!” “a great video” recognizing the work. And many others left a comment such as “Fighting!” (a Korean way of saying good luck) to the athletes, encouraging and cheering for them.

Not only did the viewers and fans love the work, but athletes later posted on their personal channel sharing their views on their personal wins.