Nike Virtual Mercurial

We turned a run-of-the-mill live Zoom call into a mind-blowing innovation experience.

Elevating Air across every touchpoint provided a new lens through which to see and experience the Mercurial. The visual communication, media invite, the waiting room, sizzle film, script, set dressing, backdrops and on-the-fly dynamic banter between the speakers – Collin Eder & Ben Stewart – provided an absolutely undeniably clear red-thread and product benefit take-away: fast is in the air.

Nike Football hadn’t unveiled a breakthrough innovation in the Mercurial line for some time. There were iterations and improvements over the years, but nothing transformative. They were primed for their next game-changing hit.

Heading into a Women’s Euro and Men’s World Cup year, Nike was ready to announce and reveal to global media the first ever articulated airbag for football in the Mercurial, dropping in a punch of supercharged Zoom speed to what’s already widely considered the fastest boot in the game.

One wrinkle: this wasn’t the first time Nike had tried air bags in their boots, having previously repurposed basketball air bags in former attempts. Our challenge was to prove how this time was different—and why this Air Zoom Mercurial was poised to change football once again.

We created an ironclad narrative, breaking the live innovation experience into two distinct sets:

1) The DNA of the Mercurial and its historic impact on game and culture.

2) The innovation of the Air Zoom Mercurial and how it is set to transform the game yet again.

After upping the energy at the start with a Mercurial sizzle film, we quickly revisited its history to discover clues and milestones building up to this reveal.

A DNA peg wall served up a tangible and accessible look at the 25 year history of innovation, providing a visual backdrop of boots and ads for Collin and Ben to use as props while exploring the impact of the boot on the game and culture.

After swan diving into past and present, we encouraged media to splash over to the deep end and imagine the future of football. Across at the other set, we dressed a table with sketches, innovation designs, Zoom Air bags and other artifacts carefully preserved from the creation of the new Mercurial. These objects gave Collin the tools to unpack the boot’s innovation layer-by-layer before revealing it wizard-like for the first time to the public.

Strategic b-roll capture from rehearsal gave us the opportunity to elevate and insert key details of the innovation and boot on the fly to enhance the experience for viewers while pre-recorded films from Kylian Mbappe & Ada Hegerberg inspired the media’s imagination using the athlete’s perspective and voice.