Is Nike’s #MakeItCount the Greatest Branding Video Ever?

How does your branding highlight the connection between your customers’ goals and aspirations and your own? Nike’s #MakeItCount campaign accomplishes just that by depicting the creative results of an opportunity its audience would kill for: a pile of cash, a video camera, and the simple instruction to “make it count”.

With all of the research, analysis, consultation, and fine-tuning that goes into branding campaign, it can sometimes be easy for the message to get lost somewhere in the process. A slogan can be over-worked or over-polished, and it can wind up losing its meaning. That’s not what happened with Nike’s latest branding effort, however. Instead, thanks to a couple of individuals thinking outside the box, it’s an ideal example of branding at its best.

When the sporting giant hired director and editor Max Joseph to film a commercial for the Nike FuelBand featuring the slogan “Make It Count,” at the last minute Joseph called an audible. Taking Nike’s message (and its money) to heart, he and friend Casey Neistat set off on an around-the-world journey to truly take advantage of the opportunity. As Mashable’s Zoe Fox reports, it took the duo 10 days to spend all of Nike’s cash. In the process they traveled 34,000 miles, visiting 16 cities across three continents. The result is a one-of-a-kind video that truly encapsulates Nike’s message. It’s also a tremendous success and thanks to its viral status, Nike isn’t too upset that things didn’t go quite according to plan.

The lesson for companies looking to establish their brand? Stay focused on your message and truly take it to heart. If you can show your audience how it relates to and connects with their own personal goals and aspirations, they’ll respond accordingly.

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The right branding effort is crucial to connecting with your customers. This post will provide you with helpful steps to developing your own startup branding successfully. And for more on the benefits of tracking your company’s brand awareness, read this post from the OpenView blog.