Game Of Go
- Brand
- Nike
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Wieden + Kennedy
- With
- Monks
Objective
Nike was launching Epic React, a shoe whose defining feature — its React foam cushioning — couldn't be seen in a photo or a video. Wieden+Kennedy and MediaMonks needed to make that invisible sensation physical and watchable, and to pull the shoe's test-drive beyond runners into a competitive game anyone passing through downtown LA (or scrolling Snapchat) would want to play.
Solution
Players lace up an unreleased pair of Epic React and step onto one of three oversized, double-wide treadmills on Microsoft Square, building a quick in-game character before the race starts. They run a virtual 400m head-to-head against two other racers, their strides tracked in real time and rendered as an avatar sprinting through a course built from foam, bubbles, confetti and fur — the same animation streaming live on the giant digital billboards above the square for the crowd to watch. After crossing the line, each runner gets a personal video of their race to share. Anyone outside LA plays the identical race through a Snapchat AR lens, racing from their phone instead of the treadmill.
Results
4.5 million TV impressions and 1.5 million out-of-home impressions from the Los Angeles activation, plus 25.6 million digital impressions from the Snapchat AR version.
- 1
Players approach a giant twin-lane treadmill installation set up in a public square in front of a large digital billboard, where other people's runs play on screen; each participant is given a pair of not-yet-released running shoes to test on the track.
- 2
Before running, the player builds a personal runner avatar that will represent them on the giant screen.
- 3
The player is clipped into an overhead safety harness and fitted with motion-tracking sensors that read skeletal points, while two other runners take the adjacent treadmills for a three-way race.
- 4
At the start signal, the player's avatar runs a virtual 400-meter course on the billboard in real time, mirroring every stride with no delay, through a stylized world built from foam, bubbles, confetti, and fur.
- 5
Along the course, the player jumps and steps sideways across the double-wide treadmill to clear obstacles and collect bonuses, and pushes through zigzag sections and uphill sprints as the pace changes.
- 6
Runners who lose their footing hang from the harness instead of finishing, visible on the screens and to the crowd watching live.
- 7
The race ends with a sprint to the finish, broadcast on both the main billboard and a second big screen nearby, with one of the three runners declared the winner.
- 8
Each participant leaves with a personal video of their run to share on social media.
- 9
Players outside the physical installation play the same race remotely through an AR lens on Snapchat, available worldwide.
