Back in November we posted on indie digital agency AnalogFolk expanding its relationship with Nike by picking up a global assignment for the Training portion of the footwear giant’s business.
Specifically, the new work from the agency’s U.S. division promotes NTC, or the Nike+ Training Club, along with its attendant apps and physical gyms.
The challenge, according to the agency’s own brief case study, lay in convincing your average fitness-interested soul that “training” is not a key word for things that only professional athletes or bodybuilders do. In fact, it may well be for me and you!
#StopExercisingStartTraining launched on New Years’ Day. The :15 below is worth watching mainly for the not-at-all-awkward transition from ’80s-style gymnastics classes (we think?) to whatever hardcore workout freaks do today.
Here’s a key insight: “As jogging became running, exercise will become training.”
This was really just a semantic shift, but it absolutely happened. When was the last time you heard the word “jogging” and visualized someone under the age of 45? We think of Louis C.K. huffing and puffing his way around the West Village rather than the Road Runner bros who blind everyone in Prospect Park with their neon getups around 6:15 every weekday morning.
AnalogFolk also handled a bunch of the social content around the campaign, whose homepage includes a few more explainers like this one located next to a group of jazzercisers in Jane Fonda workout gear:
“Gone are days of endless exercise. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting results. Training takes mindless repetition and turns it into progress by knowing what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
Here’s more from Kyrie Irving and WNBA star Skylar Diggins.
A post shared by Nike+ Training Club (@niketraining) on
…and Europeans moving some massive tires through Barcelona.
The hashtags got co-opted for some organic growth, as these things tend to to do.
And the campaign was indeed global.
Here’s some more of the work.
Now can we address the thing where people feel the need to include “runner” in all their social media bios??