Athletic wear giant, Nike, is moving away from recent digital-first strategies with its new “I Told You” and several Air Jordan 1 spots.
Released during the 2024 NFL Playoffs, the “I Told You” ad showcases a confident, almost brash tone that longtime fans recognize from Nike’s most iconic campaigns, featuring some of the season’s greatest plays. This pivot is further reinforced by their animated “A People’s History of the Air Jordan 1” spot, which reimagines the sneaker’s 1985 origin story through a fresh lens. Several shorter form Air Jordan ads round out the campaign.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the campaign.
The Details:
- While iSpot media measurement reports the new “I Told You” holding over a 95% share of both Nike brand streaming activity and linear Impressions (12/20/24-1/12/25), the ad’s ability to persuade viewers to purchase trails that of the long-form “A People’s History of the Air Jordan”—as well as a :15 “Censor” that opened with Jordan himself and the information that the Air Jordan was banned in 1984:
- An alternative “Censor” :15 focusing on censoring of the shoes visually (without Jordan himself) was not nearly as effective.
- As such, Nike could consider shifting some budget at least to the short-form Jordan “Censor” sparking a 60% Top 2 Box intent rate, vs. 59% for the long form Air Jordan spot and 52% for “I Told You.”
- The average apparel & footwear ad over the past year persuaded 50% to positive consideration, so “I Told You” is still a solid performer in this regard—and also outpaced category norm performance in other creative aspects.
- An alternative “Censor” :15 focusing on censoring of the shoes visually (without Jordan himself) was not nearly as effective.
- Viewer comments suggest that the broader appeal of the Jordan creatives lies at least partially in the focus on the shoes rather than an individual sport:
- Comments on the :15 “Censor” featuring Jordan reflect a very effectively delivered message that was cool to viewers, while also indeed making the brand a bit more interesting!
Sample comments on the :15 “Censor” featuring Michael Jordan:
“I learned something. I found this to be pretty cool. Didn’t know this and they’re just talking about how the NBA banned Air Jordans and they wouldn’t pay the fine and it became more popular.”
Male 16-20
“I like how nostalgic and vintage the ad was as well as showing the long standing reputation of Jordans.”
Male 21-35
“I thought this ad was really interesting. I didn’t know the history of the Air Jordans.”
Female 21-35
“Not sure what point the ad was trying to show me. A little confusing. A blast from left field, like where did that come from?”
Male 36-49
“I thought this ad was great. I did not know that there was a back story to the Nike Air Jordan so the information was really cool. It was informative and thorough.”
Female 21-35
“It’s interesting because I never knew that these were banned in the NBA. Knowing that was what made it cool is really cool. If it hadn’t been banned, would they be cool?”
Female 16-20
“I like that it’s showing the product was so good. Such an advantage that it was banned professionally so must be good for me.”
Male 21-35
“It was interesting. I didn’t know that Nike Airs were banned from games. Wow. Also censoring the mustached guy was funny.”
Male 21-35
- However, “I Told You” was very effective among viewers interested in pro football (in which Nike has been targeting the spot as well as college football programming):
- Viewers found the inspiring :30 ad unique/different, with the visuals engaging and relatable.
- Although the :15 Jordan cut was a bit confusing to some viewers, it earned 50% positive sentiment, and could offer substantial opportunity to maximize reach and/or optimize the budget vs. the longer 2:20 “A People’s History of the Air Jordan,” which saw objections to the length:
- The longer form Jordan spot posted a 56% positivity rate in viewer sentiment.
- Viewer recall statistics (unaided) indicate that few viewing the :15’s associated the Air Jordan narratives with Nike, but rather the Jordan brand while the longer-form saw split recall:
- Second-by-second trace for the long form Jordan ad shows excellent engagement at the first animated visuals and the ebb and flow of strong storytelling:
- Drops and flat periods of engagement can mark areas with opportunities for editing for shorter forms.
- Modeling of the past three years of Nike General Apparel ads to uncover the creative aspects that drive higher purchase intent reveals that such ads were high in Change and Relevance while maintaining Likeability (referenced by the blue Optimal Profile bars on the right-hand side of the chart below). Information and Attention also had an impact but a lesser one:
- The green bars compare the :30 “I Told You” to that Optimal Profile (still right side of the chart) and indicate that the new ad was especially Likeable and Relevant/relatable, but still met the Change hurdle.
- While Attention did not differentiate as strongly between ads with higher vs. lower Nike purchase intent, this could simply reflect a lack of variability across brand ads in this regard, not that the ads are not attention-getting.
- The impact on purchase intent is reflected in the left side of the chart, with the plot of ads (the subject ad highlighted in green again), indicating the performance of the newest :30 spot would translate into an expected higher intent than other Nike ads, falling in the upper right-hand quadrant.
- Armed with this information on each of Nike’s creatives (ads can be pretested to confirm potential even before airing), the brand’s media team is empowered to allocate budget accordingly to optimize business results.
- Note that other brands will have their own unique Optimal profiles.
- The green bars compare the :30 “I Told You” to that Optimal Profile (still right side of the chart) and indicate that the new ad was especially Likeable and Relevant/relatable, but still met the Change hurdle.
- Skechers continues to spark very high consumer interest with their hands-free Slip-Ins, most recently with a :30 product- and feature-focused spot on the brand’s new Work Slip-Ins:
Ineffective creative, even if delivered to the right audience, results in missed opportunity and performance shortfalls. Great creative delivered poorly also results in failed campaigns.
Schedule a demo to find out how your brand can partner with iSpot to quickly solve both challenges simultaneously, delivering high-performing creative while boosting the effectiveness of planning and in-market execution to achieve—and outperform—campaign objectives.