Nike Women

Nike’s journey to a global powerhouse brand had left women behind.

The consumer profile demonstrated a significant gender bias. Nike was not only resonating louder with males, but also alienating females to a degree. Nike was seen as macho, aggressive and focused on the male sport experience.

Attempts to reach female consumers had faltered. They were dismissed as lacking insight, empathy and ‘mansplaining’. As one Dutch research participant famously said: “We’re not boys with boobs, you know”.

Finding the right insights, the team immersed itself in the female fitness experience across Europe with a two-month long research project involving interacting with female athletes, teams and fitness addicts. Nike built an understanding of the unique female sporting experience – the challenges, the inspirations, the rewards; but also the frustrations and tensions.

The brand needed to intervene and engage with authentic recognition and action to improve the women’s sport experience which was inferior to that of their male counterparts. The brand situated itself at the epicentre of this gap and sought to level-up the sport experience with a celebration women’s unique relationship with sport. Instill pride, dismissing inferiority and changing defence to offence.

The output integrated multiple product, media and experiential activations, a hghlight of which was a collectible series of books capturing the voice of female athletes in culture. The Encyclopedia of Contradictions and Let the Bitch Out became coveted by women across Europe, driving traffic to retail and hitting new highs in engagement. It set the foundation for a major reset in the brand’s gender relationships and a European compound growth rate over 20% for the next 5 years amongst women consumers.