NIKE - THE BALL MAKES US MORE
THE DAY I GOT LUCKY ENOUGH TO WORK FOR MY TEAM
Global Film (Spanish With English Subtitles)
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nike’s partnership with FC Barcelona, together with W+K we created the biggest campaign in the history of the club, an acknowledgement of Barça's power to unite fans of all kind.
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Our anthem is an ode to the ball as the beating heart of Catalan culture, originally narrated in Catalan by famous Barcelona-born presenter Carles Francino.
Directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister, every frame in the film is divided into squares in a nod to the layout of the city, designed in the mid-19th century by urban planner Ildefons Cerdà.
The dialogue between this distinctive layout and the poem lines unifies acts as a narrative device throughout the whole campaign.
Some of the biggest names in recent F.C. Barcelona history featured in the film, including players Iniesta, Coutinho, Ousmane Dembélé, Martens (Dutch forward from FC Barcelona women's team), Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti, Denis Suárez and Paulinho; as well as cameos from legends Puyol, Ronaldinho, Guardiola and the great Johan Cruyff.
Alongside them, we also featured Catalan fans with powerful stories, such as skateboarder Pedro Attenborough, BMX rider Malcom de Blas or, most notably, 78-year-old Carles Tarrida, a fan who attended the first-ever match at the Camp Nou on Sept. 24, 1957.
We also stretched this love for detail in acknowledging Catalan culture to behind the lenses. For instance, the original score features the percussions of local tradition band Kaboom, and the voice of an upcoming flamenco star, Barcelona native Grammy nominee Rosalía.
WHY I LIKE IT
I never expected that a call from the folks at W+K Amsterdam asking for help on some translations would bring me the chance to write an anthem for my beloved team.
I still feel the goosebumps when I remember 100.000 fans at Camp Nou formed a mosaic with our tagline during the last game of La Liga.
CREDITS
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam
Year: 2018
Role: Freelance Copywriter (with Jake Barnes)
Executive Creative Directors: Eric Quennoy, Mark Bernath
Creative Directors: Craig Williams, Evgeny Primachenko
Production Company: Reset Content
Director: Wally Pfister
Over the course of 7 months I collaborated closely with the agency team to provide cultural background and create 36 scripts and 12 taglines in English, Catalan and Spanish. That’s a lot of rhymes!
I also helped the agency during the shoot and post-production.