City Fast
- Brand
- Nike
- Year
- 2017
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- UNIT9
- With
- Le Polish Bureau
Objective
Nike used the game to build attention around the UK launch of the Air Zoom Mariah Flyknit, part of the Fast Pack, by putting it inside a retail touchpoint players already had open — the JD Sports app — rather than asking for a separate download. The aim was to pull shoppers into that app, put the shoe itself on screen, and hold their attention with a competitive leaderboard and a prize on the line, all built to the pace of the campaign in four weeks.
Solution
Players reach the game through a promo banner inside the JD Sports app and drop straight into a run as a silhouetted sprinter wearing the Fast Pack trainers. A tap sends the runner sprinting forward, a swipe up clears obstacles, and a swipe down ducks under them, as the course moves through three stretches of a smoke-hazed, street-style city. Each run ends with a score that posts to a leaderboard for the promo period, and sharing that score to Facebook is what enters the player into the draw for a pair of the shoes.
- 1
The game launches from inside the JD Sports mobile app: a promo banner for the campaign opens it directly, with no separate app to download, leading into a splash screen branded with the campaign logo over a hazy city skyline.
- 2
The player picks a runner, a male or female athletic silhouette, both rendered with the Nike Fast Pack sneakers prominently visible.
- 3
The core loop is an endless-runner side-scroll: the silhouette runs left to right, and the player taps to accelerate, swipes up to jump over obstacles and reach upper tiers of the multi-level city, and swipes down to slide under low obstacles, all in service of building and holding top speed.
- 4
The backdrop shifts without a break across three zones, from rural outskirts to an industrial district to downtown, each bringing its own set of obstacles.
- 5
Each run ends with a recorded best time that is posted to a shared leaderboard, letting the player compare their result against other participants.
- 6
During the 14–28 August 2017 promo window, the player can replay as many times as they like to improve their time, and shares the result on Facebook to enter a prize draw, with the top score winning the grand prize and ten more results winning a pair of Zoom Mariah Flyknit.
