THIS IS HOW WE PLAY

In 2021, Diamond Sports consideration was down with 36% of parents saying their kids lost interest in baseball. In kids words, “IDGAF.” While Baseball, the game, is joy, passion, fun and beauty. Baseball, the sport, is boring and pay-to-play realities made it exclusive.

To encourage play, Nike needed show kids they belonged on the diamond.

It’s a new ballgame, and it’s theirs.

Young people will play, but they do it together and on their terms. They’re playing stickball and streetball. They’re playing with total disregard for tradition and what used to be. Their game is a game with no rules and that no one rules.

So we showed kids they belong on the diamond by establishing baseball as their game.

This is How We Play showed how they make it theirs, change it 
and play it forward and invited them to keep taking ownership 
of the game.

Rewriting the traditions

We played with the norms of the game to make our point, taking a song steeped in baseball history and refreshing it with new faces, strong voices, and fresh behaviors. We hijacked the famous 7th inning stretch sing-a-long “Take me out to the ballgame” and reimagined it with the same IDGAF attitude young players have about the MLB’s conventions, leaning hard into the “I don’t care if I ever go back” lyric.

The final punctuation mark? Our CTA is the reclaiming statement “We’re Up.” It ensured the widest range of kids possible could see themselves on the Diamond.

Hijacking the moment

We took the biggest moment in Baseball, the 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. A social-only launch, we intentionally stayed away from TVC and CTV; and  we didn’t use influencers and paid partnerships to ensure 100% authenticity to the message and Nike’s connection to youth.