Nike Crowdsources Content to Make Paintball Portrait [VIDEO]

By Reb Carlson

Whenever there is a time to celebrate, it’s an opportunity to create content. Successfully creating it with a community also gives a reason to celebrate.

Nike crowdsourced a paintball portrait of Rafael Nadal to celebrate his defeat of Novak Djokovic at the 2012 French Open final last week, marking Nadal’s record-breaking seventh win at Roland Garros.

As Nadal’s official sponsor, Nike took to the internet to celebrate this great acheivement. On the Nike Tennis Facebook page, fans were encouraged to leave messages of support. Each fan had their name written on paintballs which were then shot to create a giant painting of Nadal himself.

Check out the video to see the process.

Nike also created a mural depicting a portrait of Maria Sharapova to celebrate “all the fans who have supported Maria on the journey to her Career Grand Slam. Back at number one,” according to the Facebook album with all the photos of the mural being created.

These creations marked the end of Nike Tennis’ content strategy on Facebook during the French Open. Instead of just pushing messages at fans, Nike Tennis made it more about celebrating the support fans were giving their favorite athletes.

The Facebook page became a hub where the people could gather and create artwork which continued the conversation about the French Open since it allowed fans to be part of the event.

Creating content and initiatives in the offline world allows brands to continue conversation and support online. It is an often unnoticed advantage of creating content: the conversation that gets sparked.