Catch The Flash
- Brand
- Nike
- Year
- 2011
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Jung Von Matt/Neckar
Objective
Nike needed to launch the Vapor Flash Jacket across Germany, Austria and Switzerland and prove its one real claim — full reflectivity that makes a runner visible in the dark — rather than just state it. Jung von Matt/Neckar built the launch around the idea of "making the invisible visible," turning that product property directly into a game mechanic instead of a demo video. The goal was to build buzz and participation around a single launch night that people could join both on the streets of Vienna and from anywhere online, boosted by tie-ins with Nike Store Vienna and radio station KroneHit.
Solution
On launch night, 50 runners in the Vapor Flash Jacket set off through Vienna's darkened city centre, each one broadcasting their live position from a phone app onto a map on the campaign microsite. Players out on the street hunt by sight: spot a glowing runner, raise a camera, and fire the flash — it lights up the whole jacket and reveals a number printed on the back, which counts as a catch. Players anywhere else play the same hunt from a screen: for a week before the run they plant up to ten "flash traps" on the map of Vienna, picking up extra traps from bonus codes handed out by Nike Store Vienna and KroneHit, and then on the night itself they steer an avatar through a Pac-Man-style virtual Vienna with the keyboard, closing in on a runner's dot to catch them and unlock their photo. The night ends when the run does, and whoever has flashed the most runners wins the top prize: a platinum bar worth €10,000.
- 1
Players learn about the hunt in advance through in-store promotion and a radio partner, where they can pick up bonus codes that grant extra moves in the online game.
- 2
On a companion microsite, players open a map of Vienna and, in the week before the event, place up to ten "flash traps" at chosen locations; bonus codes increase how many traps they get.
- 3
On the night of the event, the map comes alive: fifty real runners wearing GPS-tracked jackets, including local celebrities and athletes, move across the city in real time as tracked dots.
- 4
In one online mode, players wait passively for a runner to cross one of their pre-placed traps, which then catches that runner automatically with no further input.
- 5
In a second online mode, players actively steer their own avatar through the virtual city with the keyboard, Pac-Man style, chasing down runner-dots; a catch this way rewards the player with a photo of that runner as a trophy.
- 6
In parallel, players can hunt on foot, tracking real runners through the city and photographing them with a camera or phone flash, which lights up the reflective jacket and reveals a printed number on the back as proof of the catch.
- 7
Each unique number or virtual catch adds to a player's running tally, and the session ends with the night's catches ranked to determine winners of tiered prizes, from a gold-bar grand prize down to branded running gear.
