China doesn’t do sport.

Parents see it as time that could be spent studying, while many kids see it as something laborious and regimented. Today, the most participated sport in China is ‘walking’, followed second by ‘nothing’.

To an athletic apparel company like Nike, this presents a big challenge: how could we change kids’ perception of sport in China?

350,000 kids did sport with us during the summer events, and an additional 2m registered for a social game that rewarded young people for doing sport.With 145,000 attendees, the Festival of Sport became Shanghai’s most attended sports event of 2011.Over the year, Nike’s revenues in Greater China went up 16%. During the campaign, Nike’s market share in Shanghai increased by 5 points.Today, millions more kids in China do sport.

We needed a campaign that showed kids in China that sport can give them things that nothing else can, but more than this we needed to deliver our promise by providing unparalleled opportunities for kids to participate in so that they could experience the joy of sport for themselves.We organised athlete tours, training classes, and tournaments that together made up the most comprehensive sporting calendar seen in China since the Beijing Olympics.

What started with basketball superstar Kevin Durant’s China tour in June ended in August with a 4-day extravaganza in Shanghai called the Festival of Sport.

The power of sport is the beauty and joy of doing it. We couldn’t expect young people to Just Do It without showing them what ‘It’ was, and why they should care.

By aligning all of our energy to the single objective of delivering unrivalled sporting experiences to young people in China, we brought together some of the world’s most inspirational athletes, teams and products into one calendar. Through every step, we proved to young people that Nike is a brand that lives by what it says.