Nike is launching a new campaign aimed at female consumers aged 16 to 30 after results of research it sponsored earlier this year showed that a majority of young women in Europe feel that sport can improve self-esteem.
Of 10,000 women contacted for the survey, half claimed to participate in sporting activities, and 3,500 of those said that sports had influenced their success in life. Nike will use the images of successful female athletes for its “Here I Am” campaign, which is led by Adriana Pereira, European brand manager for Nike Women. Advertising will appear in print and in outlets in the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Turkey and will be online as of this month. At the same time, the brand is launching a Spring 2008 collection of women’s sportswear.
TNS, which conducted the survey in these nine European countries, found that the main motivation for women of this age group to practice a sport was to maintain physical health. German women were found to be the most athletic, with 67 percent of the age group surveyed participating in sports, and Turkish women the least sporty, with 41 percent involved in a regular sport. Overall, aerobics, fitness and swimming were the most popular sports for female participants, with participation levels reaching 38 percent, 35 percent and 31 percent respectively.
The survey went on to explore various emotional benefits of practicing a sport, after 72 percent of women involved claimed such activities made them stronger. Of the 5,000 who practiced a sport, 77 percent had confidence in themselves compared with 72 percent for the whole group; 77 percent felt successful and 62 percent had a high degree of self-esteem. Meanwhile, sport helped half of the women who used it to stay cheerful and 59 percent to manage their stress or anger.
Although 83 percent of the participants did not consider sport to be an activity better suited to men, 2 out of 5 did consider the sporting environment to be male-dominated. Women in Russia and the UK expressed fears of losing their femininity through excessive sport. A large number of Turkish, Italian and Russian women did not like the idea of being overly muscular, and many women from the UK did not like the idea of sweating too heavily.
Nike has cooperated with various European champion athletes for this campaign, such as Perri Shakes-Drayton, an 18-year-old British hurdle jumper; Fabienne Nadarajah, an Austrian swimmer; and Vanessa Fernandes, a triathlon runner from Portugal. Other female participants are Ingrid Graziani, the champion boxer; Sofia Boutella, a hip-hop dancer from France; and Susanna Kallur, a Swedish champion athlete. The brand will also sponsor women’s competitions throughout the year, like the Parisienne, a 6 km, female-only race held in Paris in September.
