Nissan: PRODUCTION LINE OF HEROES

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: NISSAN DO BRASIL
Agency: IN PRESS PORTER NOVELLI
Category: Best Use of Sponsorship
Collaborator: Adriana Behar (Olympic Medalist)
Account Executive: Fernanda Villas Boas (In Press Media Guide)
Client Management Director: Graziella Batista (Mpix Fotografia)
Senior Account Executive: Camila Coimbra (In Press Media Guide)
Media Training Expert: Cristina Valente (In Press Porter Novelli)
Digital Director: Janine Louven (In Press Porter Novelli)
Executive Director: Fernanda Menegotto (VBrand)
Collaborator: Kiko Menezes
Executive Director: Manoela Penna (In Press Media Guide)
Communications Director: Juliana Cabrini (Nissan Do Brasil)
Marketing Director: Murilo Moreno (Nissan Do Brasil)
Production Coordinator: Patrícia Feitosa (VBrand)
Head Photographer: Marcio Rodrigues (Mpix Fotografia)
Editing: Thiago Conceição
Executive Communications Director: Fernando Menezes (Nissan Do Brasil)
Executive Director: Hugo Godinho (VBrand)
Head Producer: Lula Duffrayer (Conexão Rio)
Media Training Expert: Patricia Odenbreit (In Press Porter Novelli)
Development Director: Sonia Azevedo (In Press Porter Novelli)
Editing: Terêncio Porto
Event Analyst: Ana Marques (Nissan Do Brasil)
Client Management: Beatriz Affonso (Fuse Sports Marketing)
Senior Account Executive: Fabio Bahr (In Press Media Guide)
Production Coordinator: Gabriela Javier (VBrand)
Motion Designer: Nikolas Klam

Campaign Description
As official sponsor of Rio 2016, Nissan do Brasil came up with the idea of helping build complete athletes for the Games and created Team Nissan, a group of 30 sponsored athletes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games that embodies the Olympics’ and Nissan’s brand’s spirit. It was meant to be the strongest pillar in the company’s Olympic Project.Different from most of the traditional sports sponsorship programs, the athletes had no money paid directly. Instead, Nissan gave all team members a Livina XGear, made in Brazil, and an off-the-court preparation and inspiration. Two coaches were chosen to guide the young talents over the next four years: Hortencia Marcari, Olympic silver medal winner in basketball and all-time basketball hall of fame, and Clodaldo Silva, multi-Paralympic Games gold medal winner in swimming.By giving the athletes a car (many of them had never had one before!), Nissan wanted to ensure efficient mobility and, consequently, better training conditions. For preparing complete athletes, Nissan started with organizing media and social media training (part of the communication strategy) and will continue developing other skills in the team as after-retirement management and anti-doping regulation.Such an innovative and exciting sponsorship project needed a captivating and creative launch, along with consistent PR strategy and athletes preparation to the launch.As a result, the press coverage to the sponsorship announcement and Team Nissan’s launch reflected the key messages exactly. Athletes were engaged and the program was described as innovative.

Client Brief Or Objective
The Team Nissan’s announcement strategy communication had as goals:Engaging athletes under the same feeling of belonging to Team Nissan and spreading the Olympic Spirit.Translating Team Nissan’s importance to the company’s Olympic Project.Showing Innovation and Excitement, two attributes of Nissan’s global communication.Reaching the country’s media to show the greatness of the sponsorship program.Reflecting Nissan’s commitment to prepare complete athletes off the field, with training's such as after-retirement management programs, media and social media training.Engaging online fans.

Relevancy
This is the biggest sponsorship investment in the Nissan do Brasil’s history, and an innovative sports sponsorship program. How to engage athletes and promote on and offline buzz spreading the right messages?If sharing Olympic Spirit was one of Nissan do Brasil’s commitments when agreeing to sponsor Rio 2016 Games, it had to be clear in all stages of Team Nissan’s preparation, announcement and launch. It was not only other plain sponsorship program but THE exciting sponsorship towards 2016.Team Nissan features:24 Olympic athletes6 Paralympic athletes17 male and 13 female athletes12 Olympic and 5 Paralympic modalities

Effectiveness
Athletes Eleudis Valentim (judo), Rosangela Santos (athletics) and Isabela Ramona (basketball) got their first car, as well as the Paralympic Athletes Dirceu Pinto (boccia) and Edenia Garcia (swimming), who got adapted vehicles. Paralympic champion Jovane Guissone (fencing) moved from taking two buses and one train – a three-hour travel from home to training site – to a 40-minute car ride. During the launch, the program delivered highly engaged athletes who became Team Nissan’s advocates through spontaneous personal posts on the web and comments to the media. Key messages such as 'innovative sponsorship program' and 'Nissan helping make complete athletes' could be seen on articles and TV. 78 journalists representing 31 communication outlets attended to the launch and published over 200 stories. The Investment Return reached around US$ 5 million. The launch format and concept served as guideline for further events specific for Team Nissan and for Nissan do Brasil as a whole.

Execution
The Team Nissan’s campaign and launch briefing, creation, approval and execution took 40 days. It turned out exactly as it was meant to: a great show of different sports sharing the Olympic spirit.It was held in three days in Rio de Janeiro. Athletes from 11 different states were interviewed (video) and photographed for further media kit use. Teammates learned about their performance plan and were introduced to Nissan’s strategy for the Brazilian market and the 2016 Olympics. They have also been introduced to Team Nissan’s coaches Hortência and Clodoaldo and heard inspirational words from Adriana Behar (beach volleyball Olympic medal winner) about the Olympic spirit.They had been through media and social media training in the second day.The third day was of the launch itself, which took place in an official venue of the Rio 2016 Games: the beautiful Rowing Stadium.

Strategy
It was all thought to deliver the Olympic spirit and make the athletes engaged.The strategy in the ramp-up to the announcement involved four phases:Identity: Making athletes (from different ages, gender, sports and social backgrounds) feel that 'we are Team Nissan'Engagement: Driving full participation in the launch event. The more comfortable they felt, the more real the presentation would be.Preparation: 'Who is Nissan' seminar and media and social media training; The better prepared the athletes were, the more the chances the key messages would be transmitted accurately.Documentation: Audiovisual capture of events for further documentary production in 2016 and for prompt media distribution.The launch itself was designed to be innovative and exciting. Instead of traditional press conference, media and guests were welcomed in a sports circuit and then in a movie theater, for the display of the documentary about Team Nissan’s formation.