Nike Running
Nike Running
RUNNING WAS MISSING HORMONES - THE GOOD STUFF PROJECT
RUNNING WAS MISSING HORMONES - THE GOOD STUFF PROJECT
2010
2010
It was 2010. Nike gathered around forty people in a room: creative leaders from five agencies, all responsible for helping make running relevant to Brazilians between 17 and 25. The problem was obvious. Running was still seen as something older people did. During the discussion I asked a question that shifted the room. What if running wasn’t about performance at all? What if, for this audience, it was about hormones? The electricity of being young together. The same force that fills bars, concerts and rooftops at sunset. I remember saying, “Faltam hormônios na corrida.” Running was missing chemistry.
It was 2010. Nike gathered around forty people in a room: creative leaders from five agencies, all responsible for helping make running relevant to Brazilians between 17 and 25. The problem was obvious. Running was still seen as something older people did. During the discussion I asked a question that shifted the room. What if running wasn’t about performance at all? What if, for this audience, it was about hormones? The electricity of being young together. The same force that fills bars, concerts and rooftops at sunset. I remember saying, “Faltam hormônios na corrida.” Running was missing chemistry.
That single thought became the strategic lens for everything that followed. Instead of asking young people to adopt the culture of running, we redesigned running around the culture they already wanted to be part of. Five agencies began building different expressions of the same narrative. Together with Milk, we helped create a new ambassador ecosystem based not on athletic performance but on social gravity, identifying people others naturally wanted to follow. Running clubs evolved into social gatherings. My own team designed the experience surrounding the 600 km São Paulo–Rio relay, turning the race into the culmination of months of community building. F/Nazca translated the same idea into the national campaign Coisa da Boa, portraying running as something contagious, desirable and impossible to resist.
That single thought became the strategic lens for everything that followed. Instead of asking young people to adopt the culture of running, we redesigned running around the culture they already wanted to be part of. Five agencies began building different expressions of the same narrative. Together with Milk, we helped create a new ambassador ecosystem based not on athletic performance but on social gravity, identifying people others naturally wanted to follow. Running clubs evolved into social gatherings. My own team designed the experience surrounding the 600 km São Paulo–Rio relay, turning the race into the culmination of months of community building. F/Nazca translated the same idea into the national campaign Coisa da Boa, portraying running as something contagious, desirable and impossible to resist.
Within two years, the image of running had changed. Young runners stopped looking toward older athletes for inspiration and started looking sideways, at one another. Facebook was expanding. Instagram was just emerging. Running became something social, something worth sharing, something that expressed identity. The learning from Brazil eventually reached Nike’s global teams and helped shape the cultural logic behind the running crews that today exist in cities around the world. Some creative ideas become campaigns. Others become operating systems.
CULTURE STARTS IN THE MARGINS.
AND SUDDENLY YOU CAN'T EVEN RECOGNIZE
WHERE DID IT COME FROM.
CULTURE STARTS IN THE MARGINS.
AND SUDDENLY YOU CAN’T EVEN RECOGNIZE
WHERE DID IT COME FROM.
Ambassador Network
We designed a recruitment model that prioritized social influence over athletic ability. We at Live and Milk built an ecosystem of captains who attracted friends before they attracted runners, transforming existing running clubs into communities people wanted to belong to.
Ambassador Network
We designed a recruitment model that prioritized social influence over athletic ability. We at Live and Milk built an ecosystem of captains who attracted friends before they attracted runners, transforming existing running clubs into communities people wanted to belong to.
SP–RIO Race
As Creative Director, I developed the experience surrounding the 600 km relay. The race wasn’t the campaign. It was the destination, the reward for months of participation, training and community building.
SP–RIO Race
As Creative Director, I developed the experience surrounding the 600 km relay. The race wasn’t the campaign. It was the destination, the reward for months of participation, training and community building.
National Campaign
F/Nazca’s Coisa da Boa translated the same strategic insight into mass communication, framing running as something addictive, youthful and culturally magnetic rather than purely athletic.
National Campaign
F/Nazca’s Coisa da Boa translated the same strategic insight into mass communication, framing running as something addictive, youthful and culturally magnetic rather than purely athletic.
WHEN AN INSIGHT BECOMES A SYSTEM
This wasn’t my campaign. It was my narrative.
As a creative director, few things have been more rewarding than watching an idea stop being yours. The phrase “running is missing hormones” became less of a concept and more of a lens. Every partner interpreted it differently. F/Nazca turned it into a campaign that made running feel addictive. We built a relay race that celebrated community over competition. None of those projects looked alike, yet they all felt unmistakably connected.
As a creative director, few things have been more rewarding than watching an idea stop being yours. The phrase “running is missing hormones” became less of a concept and more of a lens. Every partner interpreted it differently. F/Nazca turned it into a campaign that made running feel addictive. We built a relay race that celebrated community over competition. None of those projects looked alike, yet they all felt unmistakably connected.
I still love looking at F/Nazca’s campaign. It remains one of my favorite Nike campaigns.
I still love looking at F/Nazca’s campaign. It remains one of my favorite Nike campaigns.