Nike has served up a good example of creative marketing on Shanghai’s West Bund, installing a giant tennis ball into the riverfront – Nike tick plainly visible in the fuzzy green. Where the installation gets really clever is that on the river’s other bank they’ve pasted a building-sized image of Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen mid swing. If you stand in the right spot it looks like she’s serving the Nike tennis ball right at you.
The display has been attracting strong online engagement with netizens sharing pictures and remarking at the creative thinking behind the idea.
Nike’s creative thinking here is part of a broader, global push that kicked off earlier this year and also demonstrates the brand’s ability to think outside the box: they took their usual slogan ‘Just Do It’, and asked ‘Why Do It?’ Sports stars like Carlos Alcaraz, LeBron James, and in the case of China, Zheng Qinwen, are still the faces of the campaign but instead the message looks at why great athletes do what they do.
Zheng Qinwen’s star is on the rise. At just 22 she’s already seen significant achievements in the tennis world, such as winning gold in the women’s singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She represents grit, determination, and, importantly for Nike, youth. By aligning with Zheng, Nike not only emphasises elite performance but also connects with a generation of Chinese consumers inspired by ambition, self-expression, and the courage to challenge norms.
This tennis ball installation is a smart way to grab attention, but in China, where ‘lying flat’ – non-conformity to the rat-race mentality – is a hot topic among young people, it remains to be seen whether ‘Why Do It?’ might be a particularly resonant message for all the wrong reasons.
