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Nike Football (best YouTube experience ever?)

Nike_football_4x

Holy sh*t.
Click this link and play for a minute.

W+K London has created this 3-minute epic soccer film, in advance of the Euro 2012 Championship. It ran on TV in Europe, but the brilliance is in the layers of depth in the YouTube video.
They've built in "tunnels" - clickable hotspots that appear about every 10 seconds, triggering player quotes, stories, other videos-within-the-video, or even entire other campaigns (i.e. "The Chance" about a minute in).

This pushes the envelope for what's possible with interactive film.
Even for a non-soccer fan like me, the "tunnels" educate me, and get me invested in the stories of every player.

PREDICTION: THIS WILL WIN EVERY CREATIVE AWARD KNOWN TO MAN.

Here's the write-up, from Contagious. ( http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2012/05/nike_football_1.php )

Nike Football blows the whistle on its impressive new integrated campaign ahead of this summer's Euro 2012 championship

Now depending on what side of London you're from, or indeed whether football even interests you one iota, Saturday night's coverage of the beautiful game was significant for one of two reasons. The first was Chelsea's pilfering of the Champions League Trophy out from under the noses of Bayern Munich. The other, was a rather epic 3-minute ad from Nike Football which aired during the break of the game. As a bunch of Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Arsenal and Liverpool fans, we were most definitely more interested in the latter...

The spot, My Time is Now, via Wieden+Kennedy, London, and produced by Stink andStink Digital, marks the launch of a predictably epic new integrated effort which will also cover digital, out-of-home and print execution while neatly tying back into the broader #MAKEITCOUNT proposition. It features a whole host of established footy demi-gods such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Andres Iniesta and Wesley Sneijder; however, the real focus is on a rabble of young wannabes who flood onto the pitch during a France VS Holland match and turn the game into a giant free-for-all. 

The spot also debuted in a more interactive guise on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube(where it has already racked up over 9 million views) and nikefootball.com, where visitors were invited to explore nine additional 'tunnels' of content by clicking on specific tabs in the video. These ranged from a pep talk from the conveniently-named ex-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, to the full low-down on the new Nike ClashCollection of boots unveiled by the campaign. Most significant, however, is the tunnel which introduces viewers to The Chance - Nike Football's global talent scouting competition (via AKQA London) - and in doing so, explains the campaign's focus on young, unsigned players.

The Chance kicked off (pun intended) in February with the aim of finding the best 100 amateur players from 55 different countries around the world. Those chosen will be invited to Barcelona's prestigious La Masia youth academy (hence Pep's pep talk) where they will then compete to be drafted in a final team of 16 who will embark on the ultimate training tour of the most renowned academy teams in world football. The one player who stands out the most will also be awarded a place at the London-based Nike Academy, run in partnership with the Premier League.

'Young players will stop at nothing to prove they're good enough to play with the best in the game,' explains Carlos Homedes, Nike, global football marketing director. 'Their hunger and impatience to take a chance is playfully apparent in the My Time is Now campaign.  A new generation of players is taking their chance and this summer will mark an exciting time as they burst onto the scene in Poland and Ukraine.'  

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