Nike wanted to show up big at the ‘23 World Cup. Not only did they want to increase their content velocity, they wanted to create household names of the key athletes competing in the tournament, because beyond players like Sam Kerr and Megan Rapinoe, recognition for these athletes was almost non-existent. They also want to own Share of Voice throughout the tournament and cultivate the Nike audience, particularly among Gen Z. And they wanted to do all this with one key caveat: Nike wasn’t an official sponsor and couldn’t so much as utter the word ‘World Cup’.

To achieve this, we needed to think a little differently. To create an activation that did more than just draw a glance from our audience, but took the tournament to them. That put them on Her level, in the heat of the moment, at the pulse of the tournament.

We created a flexible, responsive, multi-channel content system that kept pace with sport, culture and Gen Z—the Nike Command Center. A creative machine designed to create live content for 4 weeks of the tournament pre, during and post match for Nike athletes and teams.

It foresaw 3,000+ potential scenarios across all 64 games to produce 35 pieces of contextual, channel-right content per day onto global feeds—and out into the world in OOH and retail, connecting with the next generation of sport, when and where it matters most.

As events unfolded and shifted, the Command Center meant Nike responded in real time, writing and rewriting history, to support a new generation of emerging athletes.

To make these athletes icons in people’s minds and hearts, we needed to connect Gen Z with the athletes, not the team. They don’t cheer for their nation, they cheer for the players they identify with. And they don’t get their information from one feed, they’re across multiple channels building their own experience of the tournament.

We had to get ahead of the game and traditional media with disruptive, empowering content that didn’t just report on the game, but allowed our audience to be a part of the game by taking the game to them in fresh, unique ways.

Nike Command Center was the answer. A multi-channel, reactive content system ensured we could create preactive and reactive content that leveraged every Nike-owned channel. It meant that on and off the pitch, Nike was dictating the conversation across multiple channels to audiences around the world, in their own languages.

For the 32-day tournament, we kept pace with sport and culture at every twist and turn of the event, by anticipating over 3,000 athlete and team scenarios across all 64 games—from the expected, to the unexpected. So, when the unthinkable happened for any of our 32 teams or 189 athletes, the Nike Command Center already thought of it.

As events on the pitch unfolded and shifted, we responded in real time, writing and rewriting history, to create 35 pieces of content per day, and support a new generation of emerging athletes. These contextual, channel-right stories brought the energy of the World Cup onto feeds across channels and in different countries and in different languages—and out into the world in OOH and retail, connecting with the next generation of sport, when and where it matters most.

56 team members, 64 games, 189 athletes, 32 teams, 3000 assets. Over four weeks of the tournament, handpicked talent from around the world came together to create a real-time reactive content system that put Nike athletes front and center of the biggest sporting event of the year.

We took possession of the narrative, resonating into culture on and off-pitch, seeing a 75% increase in engagement and 28k increase in followers in 30 days — all without using a single distinguishable asset. Best of all? 50% of our social followers are now GenZ. The greatest steal of the World Cup ’23. And it wasn’t even on the pitch.

Our reactive real-time content infiltrated feeds in global channels—and the world in OOH and retail. We hacked the conversation to keep up with Gen Z and turn athletes into icons. Taking possession of the story without paying for it—or saying ‘World Cup’ once.