Thread by @penunurialex

In 2012, Adidas paid $150 million to sponsor the London Olympics and expected to dominate the marketing scene.

But Nike came up with a genius strategy to steal the show.

The result? Most people thought Nike was an official sponsor.

How Nike outsmarted Adidas at the Olympics:

In 2012, the Summer Olympics was hosted in London.

Adidas won the title sponsorship of the event by bidding $150M.

They saw this as the perfect chance to outshine Nike.

But the story took a different turn…

As the official sponsor, Adidas was everywhere.

They had extensive advertising space throughout the city, in Olympic venues, and on television.

Pop-up stores, commercials, athlete meet-and-greets, etc

But Nike wouldn’t just stand by and watch…

There was a problem for Nike.

The Olympics has strict rules around sponsorship.

Non-sponsors are prohibited from associating themselves with the Olympics in any way.

So what did Nike do?

They needed to find a way to bend the rules without breaking them.

So they came up with a series of bold and clever marketing tactics.

Let’s break it down:

Alternative Londons

Since Nike couldn’t use London, UK in their commercial, they shot their campaign in other "Londons" around the world.

London Gym
London, Ohio
Little London, Jamaica

This allowed Nike to associate with the Olympics without breaking any rules.

Athlete Sponsorship

Nike sponsored around 400 Olympians.

They provided the athletes with a distinct type of shoe called “Votl”.

They used the colors yellow and green to ensure the brand stood out on the tracks.

Focusing on the Average Individual

Most Nike commercials featured big celebrities and athletes.

But in 2012, they decided to switch things up.

Instead of focusing on elite athletes, Nike crafted a campaign showing everyday people striving for greatness.

They created the legendary commercial “Find Your Greatness”.

This idea resonated with a broad audience worldwide.

Nike understood something that Adidas didn’t:

Winning the fans meant winning the game.

The result?

They dominated the marketing scene.

A survey found 37% of people recognized Nike as an official sponsor.

Only 27% correctly identified Adidas as a sponsor.

There’s a key learning here:

If you’re at a disadvantage, you need to put in the extra work.

Nike didn’t sit there and play by the rules.

They found ways to work around their limitations.

If Nike had stuck to their standard playbook, they wouldn’t have reached the same level of success.

This is a principle I apply daily in my own business.

I run a cold DM agency.

It’s not sexy or glamorous like other marketing approaches.

But because I constantly innovate and refine my strategies to stand out…

We get our clients deals worth 10,000s of dollars every month.

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