Nike: NACDM
+ Team
S/O
Robert Thompson
Karin Fhyrie
Neil Nisbet
Victor Bivol
+ Project Information
We do a really good job at making our consumers feel like they’re a part of Nike → we’re less good about feeling something ourselves.
As a Creative Director at Sovereign Objects, I had the unique opportunity to spearhead a transformative project for Nike, focusing on the North American Consumer Direct Marketing (NACDM) team. This initiative was a cornerstone of Nike's strategic pivot towards a direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing and sales approach. Launched in 2018, the NACDM team was tasked with a monumental challenge: to redefine how Nike connects with its customers directly through various channels such as Nike.com, the Nike App, SNKRS App, and its retail store footprints. This shift from a predominantly wholesale business model to a more balanced blend of Nike Direct and strategic wholesale partnerships marked a significant cultural and organizational transformation, especially within the Brand organization, culminating in a reorganization in 2020.
A pivotal aspect of our project was the development of the NACDM Identity System. This involved creating a visual identity system in alignment with the Keystone strategy. Our mission was to establish a holistic and unified language for internal teams, encompassing a logo, color palette, and principles for type, illustration, and photographic usage. The deliverables were extensive and included a visual identity system and animated launch video re-introducing the NACDM team and new Keystone Behaviors. We also developed interview questions and leadership behaviors mapped to Nike's internal leadership framework, aiming to codify internal behaviors that set benchmarks for Nike's culture.
This initiative was more than just a project; it was a comprehensive effort to codify internal behaviors that would set benchmarks for Nike's culture, focusing on talent acquisition, growth measurement, and leadership qualities recognition, marking a significant milestone in Nike's journey towards a more direct and meaningful engagement with its consumers. .
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In every community, in every organization, there are those who can see the forest for the trees. Those who rethink, redesign, restructure the ways things work from within. Whether reimagining entire programs or introducing new systems and tech, change agents cultivate bottom-up problem solving and informal collaborative leadership across the enterprise. Lasting change happens when it starts from within.
We are Agents of Change.
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Strength and advantage lies in our differences, not similarities. Diversity of thinking, perspective, race and background. Equity in our opportunities, access and recognition. Inclusion for all through transparency, space, and support. There is gravity within this alchemy, a pull that attracts collaborators, and talent that wants to win, but more importantly, wants to grow. With all our dimensions afire we become an unstoppable force to reckon with.
We are Exponential
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People are often asked to lead strategically, or tactically. But on this team, we are asked to lead with both. The ability to execute in our environment requires both skills in equal measure, intertwined and always on. Articulate a strategy, understand how it needs to evolve, and execute with both the immediate need and changing future in mind. “It is the magical abilities of the people with their heads in the clouds and with their feet on the ground, that create lasting progress.”
We are Visionary Operators.
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There is no finish line, not for the consumer and not for us. And as we break trail into new ways of working for future teams to follow, we leverage a flexible
and organic approach. Making adjustments as we go, absorbing lessons as they reveal themselves, responding and anticipating shifts in the business and consumer culture. The more organic the process the harder it is to copy.
We Are Responsive & Adaptive.
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Some may say that using technology and signals to connect directly with people is a sterile, transactional, or tactical exercise. However, we know that this work is actually shaping and powering the most significant and emotionally potent levers that affect the human experience with our brand. We are people, making products and services and experiences for people.
Consumer Direct is Direct to Human.
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A single arrow is easily broken. A bundle of ten is
not. Nike has historically been a company of heros and individuals. But not anymore. The work ahead requires a team of exceptional collective capacity. A once-in-a-lifetime crew of rare souls, whom you will never forget, and who will be trusted advisors for your entire career. Look around. This is that team.
We are A Bundle of Ten.
