Last season, Nike was honored for a diverse range of projects at the 23rd Annual Webby Awards! It takes a lot of great people to make great projects, and—in Nike’s case—great teams.
We talked with a few of the creative agencies responsible for crafting these award-winning and multi-platform projects, like interactive mobile site “Nike Reactor” by Dutch agency DPDK, and the “Nike x HQ Air Max Day” trivia game by Nike, HQ, and R/GA, on what it was like to work on these projects, and win Webby Awards in their categories.
Read our Q&As below!
NIKE, HQ AND R/GA ON “NIKE x HQ AIR MAX DAY”
The R/GA team won a 2019 Webby Award for “Nike x HQ Air Max Day”! What went into creating a sneaker drop paired with a robust, live trivia game?
As Nike, HQ and R/GA came together to develop the Air Max Day experience, our imperative was to build a single moment that was engaging to sneaker lovers and HQ’ties alike, and lived at the intersection of the Nike brand and HQ’s game-changing digital experience. With that, we set out to make the world’s most challenging sneaker drop, and create the most engaging Air Max Day celebration ever: trivia questions that celebrated the little known history of Nike Air and a priceless reward–limited edition HQ-branded Air Max 270’s–that had the internet buzzing before and long after the show ended. Connected by a shared vision, Nike, HQ and R/GA came together to work quickly and collaboratively to make this magical moment for the consumer.
What was your favorite part about working on this project with Nike and HQ?
It’s rare that you get the chance to marry an iconic cultural moment like Air Max Day with a digital phenomenon like HQ, and in the process, re-imagine the sneaker drop as a live, must-watch event.
DPDK ON CREATING “NIKE REACTOR“
The DPDK team earned a 2019 Webby win for “Nike Reactor” in Fashion & Beauty. Congratulations! Where did the idea for Nike Reactor come from and what was the end goal?
Thanks! This project started out as an in-store activation to introduce the experience and feel of the Nike Epic React to Nike store visitors. Ultimately, through the chosen technical approach, we uplifted it from solely being an in-store activation to a mobile & desktop experience as well, so we could reach a way wider audience than only people already in Nike stores. The inspiration started with a key visual from Nike where different objects & materials were stacked on top op each other to display the shoes lightness and springiness. Since Nike React is a running shoe, we wanted to combine these materials with a running figure. We then started selecting a range of objects that could serve as the right metaphors, and give people the chance to build their own unique React runner.
DPDK let consumers create customized running figures on this interactive website, using the materials and characteristics of the Nike Epic React shoe.
What surprised you while making this project? Biggest challenge?
What surprised us the most is all the possibilities that started to emerge once we were maturing the early prototype, and the number of objects involved. Our tech team added a dashboard functionality to the prototype so that every team member could play with the visualizations we had at that time by using sliders. It was like making champagne over and over and over again because every time you would pull a slider something new and really cool emerged. Specifically the slider controlling the number of objects being projected onto the skeleton gave hilarious results.
That did give a big challenge though: going back from all those options and weird outcomes to a small set of high definition objects that provided the right effect: it still needed to look ‘human’ with a recognizable silhouette. However, the biggest challenge was managing the processor power and loading time needed obviously. It needed to work cross device and cross browser. That took us quite some tweaking.
What was your favorite part about working with the team at Nike on this?
Just like DPDK, Nike does not settle for middle-of-the-road. They were on board on the idea instantly, recognizing the potential of the outcome. From there, we pushed each other in terms of creativity and quality relentlessly.
What does winning a Webby Award for this work mean to your team and clients?
We’re really proud and humbled to being awarded this honor. The Webbys are a huge recognition from the industry, signaling that we’ve succeeded in creating a piece of exceptional digitalism.