Looking at the journey of commercialization of competitive sports for nearly half a century, there are countless top superstars in different sports and fields. Everyone should have their own list of "superstars" in their minds.
However, in terms of the development and promotion process of professional players' personal commercial value, there are three players who have gone down in history and changed the situation.
Michael Jordan was the first to create a personal brand and the real hero who promoted Nike to become the world's largest sports brand.
David Beckham is the first legendary star to break the barriers of competitive sports and penetrate into the fashion, entertainment, lifestyle and other industries.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the first person to make full use of social networks to create a business empire and realize personal value.
The times are advancing; history is being written, and they all left their own distinctive mark in different ways.
If we talk about on-field performance and professional achievements, then the debate among fans will definitely not subside. This is true for every competitive sport; but when discussing commercial value, personal brand, marketing, etc., the above three players are
An epoch-making existence.
Currently, for Nike, C-Ronaldo is the leader, and NBA's LeBron James is slightly behind.
Whether it is Beckham or Ronaldo, this is the height that all sports agents dream of. With one player to create an entire business empire, even if the agent only has this one player, he can easily reach the top of the pyramid1
% ranks.
Obviously, this is the future that Tobias painted for Gawain.
This time, Gao Wen and Ronaldo shot an advertisement together. Naturally, it was not Gao Wen’s personal advertisement, but a special project to coordinate with Nike’s New Year promotion——
The stars mobilize.
The title of the project is, "Dream a little crazier", marking the beginning of Nike's new year of 2015.
The whole advertising idea is very interesting.
The advertisement starts with Gawain, filming him working out in the gym and sweating on the practice court, and then he steps onto the court amidst the cheers of the audience, and mixes the footage with him overcoming obstacles and advancing at the US Open.
Finally reached the top to win the cup.
The final footnote is, "They say this is madness."
Of course, when Gao Wen participated in the US Open, he was wearing a UCLA team uniform, so the entrance scene and batting scene still need to be returned to New York for re-shooting; and post-production will use computer special effects to modify the details to show Gao Wen wearing Nike jerseys.
The scene of climbing to the top of the mountain.
Later, Gawain will leave the tennis court and continue his "crazy journey" of challenging the limits.
Step onto the green field and challenge Ronaldo.
Step onto the basketball court and challenge LeBron James.
Step onto the golf course and challenge Rory McIlroy.
Step onto the baseball field and challenge Mike Trout.
At the end of each challenge, the footnote repeats, "They say it's madness."
Until all the challenges came to an end, Gawain returned to the tennis court, ready to go, and when he was waiting to walk onto the court, standing on the other side of the net waiting for the battle to begin was the Hulk.
The entire advertisement ends with the sentence "In this case, it is better to dream crazier".
The entire advertisement is completely connected with Gao Wen as the core. Needless to say, C-Ronaldo and LeBron James are currently one of the most representative and influential top superstars in football and basketball, while the other two players
He also has a good background, and he is exactly the player that Nike is currently promoting.
McIlroy, golfer, was born in 1989. He officially became the new world number one in March 2012. He currently holds four major championship trophies, including the US PGA Championship in August.
Trout, baseball, born in 1991, plays for the Los Angeles Angels of MLB. He was elected the American League MVP in the just-concluded 2014 season. He is not only the youngest MVP in history, but also the first person in history to win MVP votes in the first three seasons of his career.
Players who are in the top three.
There is no doubt that the lineup is luxurious.
If any one of these players is taken out, their current achievements may be higher than Gawain. They also represent the current peak of their respective sports.
And Gawain is about to "challenge" them, and connects the entire theme throughout, becoming the soul of the advertisement.
It can be seen from here that Nike has high hopes for Gao Wen, and boldly and decisively launched its first large-scale project in 2015 around Gao Wen; it even did not hesitate to invite top superstars like Ronaldo and James, and Gao Wen
Working together shows their determination.
Of course, how could Ronaldo and James be willing to be green leaves?
The special project is a series of works, "Dream More Crazy" is just the first one, establishing the core theme of Nike's commercial promotion in 2015:
Dare to dream and dare to take action.
After that, Nike also developed a separate theme for C-Ronaldo, James, McIlroy, and Trout as the core, and finally brought the five players together again to shoot the last part of the series for a special New Year.
The planned series comes to an end.
A big blueprint, a big deal.
Moreover, this is a plan for the entire Nike brand, so it spans five different projects. The main purpose is to present a core theme. Next, Nike has separate related plans for each project, and a series of advertisements and promotional posters.
I started shooting alone again.
Nike's structure is certainly no small matter.
The first time Gao Wen read the entire plan was in London. On the one hand, he lamented that Nike's concept and creativity could be inspired by his US Open experience and derived the entire business plan; on the other hand, he also enthusiastically proposed
My own opinion--
The Hulk at the last moment was Gawain's idea.
According to the original plan, in the final stage, Gawain walked onto the court and faced a magnificent and wide court, but the opponent on the other side of the net was unknown.
A vast emptiness.
After all, it is impossible for Nike to invite Federer or Nadal to "assist" Gao Wen in the shooting.
It's not because the two players are too famous to play supporting roles for Gawain - this is obviously a reason; but more because they are too direct and too simple.
It is very likely that "Gawain VS Federer/Nadal" will directly confront each other and then form an infighting among Nike's spokespersons. Putting aside for the time being, it is definitely not a case of directly placing Gao Wen in the position of the Big Four and ignoring the existence of other players.
Wise choice.
Nike believes that ending with the concepts of "challenging the unknown" and "challenging the limits" perfectly fits the entire theme and is more appropriate than a figurative opponent.
However, Gao Wen believes that since the theme of the entire project is "crazy" and it has been breaking the boundaries of sports, why not be more crazy?
For example, against the Hulk or Iron Man.
The disadvantage of this is that it lacks some artistic conception, because the original plan still has some Zen and philosophy, which can elevate the advertising concept, but now after the modification, this possibility has been lost.
The advantage of this is that it is more people-friendly and interesting. It can at least trigger discussions among young people and may even spread widely.
After thinking about it, Nike adopted Gao Wen's opinion.