Nike Looks to Secure Foothold On Women's Fitness Market By Kathy Tyre

BEAVERTON, ORE. - Nike will have doubled its investment in advertising to women by the end of the company's '93 fiscal year in May, as it looks

Highlighting that effort is a $12 million women’s ad campaign for spring – the largest single women’s push for Nike to date – capped by a TV campaign breaking Feb. 15. The TV ads bring to life Nike’s highly successful ‘Dialogue’ women’s print work.
‘Nike has 70% of the teen male athletic footwear business,’ said Nike advertising director Scott Bedbury. ‘We need to begin to build on the women’s print campaign and secure a beachhead in the women’s fitness area.’
Bedbury wouldn’t say what percentage of the women’s market the company now carries. But women currently account for 20% of Nike’s $3-billion plus in worldwide sales.
Nike’s women’s ad spending for fiscal ’93 will fall in the $20-million range. The company is currently developing its fall, ’93 women’s campaign, which will continue the ‘honest dialogue’ theme of the women’s print work and will also include new TV executions.
The ongoing ‘Dialogue’ print campaign began in 1990, and has generated more than 250,000 calls to Nike’s consumer hotline phone number in the past 12 months alone.
Actress Sigourney Weaver provided voiceover for the three spots in the spring campaign, directed by David Fincher.
The campaign celebrates the beauty and emotional rewards of exercise to women. Three ads separately promote aerobics, walking and running.
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