Nike • Never Done Evolving
2022 • Shoes • Cross-country • Global
Nike did an AI match-up of Serena Williams' career using machine learning and archival footage to showcase her evolution as a player.
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The big idea of Nike's campaign was to celebrate the career of legendary athlete Serena Williams and showcase her evolution as a tennis player over time. Using advanced AI and machine learning, Nike created a simulated match-up between Serena at her first Grand Slam in 1999 and her most recent in 2017. The campaign aimed to highlight Serena's constant determination to evolve and shatter expectations, while also demonstrating the potential of AI in sports analytics and data visualization. The simulated games were broadcasted as a YouTube livestream, reaching a wide audience and engaging Nike's subscribers.
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The challenge of this campaign was to accurately depict the evolution of Serena Williams' playing style over the course of her career using advanced AI and machine learning. This required analyzing archival footage and modeling each era's playing style, including decision making, shot selection, reactivity, recovery, and agility. Additionally, the challenge was to bring the models of Serena to life using the vid2player technique and create a seamless match-up between her past and present selves. The goal was to showcase Serena's evolution and determination to never stop evolving, while also providing tennis experts with a new and accessible format for data visualization.
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The target group of this campaign was tennis fans and enthusiasts, as well as followers of Serena Williams and Nike. The campaign aimed to engage and captivate this audience by showcasing Serena's evolution and achievements throughout her career using advanced AI and machine learning technology.
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The results of Nike's "Game, Set, Serena" campaign were highly successful. The campaign showcased the evolution of Serena Williams' game over time through an AI match-up between her first Grand Slam at the 1999 US Open and her most recent at the 2017 Australian Open. Using advanced AI and machine learning, Nike was able to model each era's playing style based on archival footage and bring the players to life in an entirely new scene.
The simulated matches between the two versions of Serena played out for 130,000 games and 5,000 matches, providing a unique and engaging experience for tennis fans.
The final gameplay was broadcasted as a YouTube livestream, reaching over 1.69 million of Nike's subscribers. The lead-up to the live event included social media promotions on Nike's Instagram and Twitter channels.
Overall, the campaign successfully celebrated Serena Williams' achievements and highlighted her ongoing determination to evolve and shatter expectations. It also demonstrated Nike's innovative use of AI and machine learning in sports analytics.
