Unlimited Stadium
- Brand
- Nike
- Year
- 2016
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- BIRDMAN
Objective
Nike wanted a self-made Olympic moment in August 2016 without being an official Rio sponsor, timing a stunt to the 17 days the world was watching the Games. In Manila, that meant turning the brand's "you against you" message into a literal race and giving local runners a reason to try the new LunarEpic Low Flyknit, while growing the Nike+ Run Club community and collecting real running data from participants.
Solution
Runners show up at the pop-up track in Bonifacio Global City, register, and get fitted with LunarEpic Flyknit sneakers and an RFID tag on the shoe. A warm-up lap around the 200-metre track, shaped like the shoe's sole, clocks their natural pace and spins up a digital avatar. From the second lap on, that avatar runs alongside them on a wraparound LED screen at exactly their previous lap's speed, growing bigger and faster the harder the runner pushes, so every heat is really a race against your own best effort. Beat your avatar three times and you earn a Nike badge; clear enough of the track's challenges and you're in line for an "epic run" as the top prize. Pacers and daily Nike+ Run Club sessions run around the track all day, so a visit works as a single sprint or as part of an ongoing training routine.
Results
Over its 17-day run (August 5–21, 2016), the track hosted up to 30 runners at a time per heat and is reported to have operated at full capacity for the entire run, with secondary sources also crediting the activation with a 100% sell-through of the featured LunarEpic Flyknit shoe in the local market.
- 1
Entry is free and open to runners and non-runners alike at a temporary track in Bonifacio Global City, running daily from 4pm to 10pm over a 17-day period.
- 2
At a registration point (or online, or by phone), the player signs up and creates a digital avatar, then is issued a test pair of Nike LunarEpic Flyknit shoes fitted with an RFID tag that links the shoe to the avatar on the track.
- 3
Players are released onto the track in waves, with up to 30 people running at once.
- 4
The first lap is a warm-up and baseline run around the 200-meter figure-eight track; the RFID tag records the player's lap time while the surrounding LED screen shows only the runner.
- 5
From the second lap on, the player's avatar appears on the LED wall and runs alongside in real time at the pace of the player's previous lap, giving a side-view readout of whether the player is ahead of or behind their past self.
- 6
The avatar mirrors the player's effort: a faster lap produces a faster avatar next time, and the avatar's on-screen figure grows larger with each lap completed, visualizing accumulated distance.
- 7
A standard session is four laps — one warm-up followed by three laps against the avatar, which speeds up each time and pushes the player to keep pace; marshals stationed along the track call out lap counts and redirect anyone who loses track.
- 8
The stated goal is to beat the avatar three times, which earns the player a Nike pin.
- 9
At the finish, the player sees whether they outran their avatar, and can return to run again and reset their own baseline.
- 10
Outside the race itself, the campaign offers further challenges: daily on-site sessions and events plus Nike+ Running and Nike Training Club app challenges, with an exclusive run hosted by Nike as the top reward.
