It’s all kicking off…
Our footballing fate lies in the hands of 23 Englishmen, two of whom will kick off tomorrow night in extra special boots. Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole will sport the motivational messages from our INSPIRED BY YOU competition winners stitched into their Elite Series boots.
Wayne chose Richard McKenna's entry: ROODARESWINS.
Ashley will have Chirag Bhatti's DEFEND 4EVER on show on his.
And as if it were not enough to know the eyes of the world will be on their messages this summer, the lucky winners were invited to present the very boots to their heroes themselves last week as the photos show. Fingers crossed the winners' luck rubbed off on the players – and their footwear…
At the same time, before the England squad flew out, our then national captain Rio told us it was time for all the talk to stop and for their performance on the pitch to speak for itself.
And so Nike's NO MORE TALK campaign was born – sign-posting England's departure in national press coverage, through UK digital out of home domination, in a SkySports.com takeover and a NikeTown London interactive experience.
By Westfield:
In central Liverpool:
Online:
In NikeTown London: (Zaid interacting with the World Cup chatter to reveal NO MORE TALK headline.)
But a week on, we now know Rio will be watching his team-mates' skills just like all of us – as an England fan urging them on from the sidelines – as a captain turned supporter. Nike conveyed his sentiment on and offline through the following creative:
And again today, on the eve of England's first game, Nike has tapped into the nation's excitement and expectation. ARISE SIR WAYNE messaging and global ads ran across London underground all day and at main-line stations tonight as commuters flocked home for the weekend.
Let's just hope we're all celebrating 24 hours from now…