Awards

CANNES LIONS - 3 shortlists

ONE SHOW - Gold

Voted in the top 10 football ads of all time the concept of the advertising campaign was a fictional tournament involving eight teams of three of football's top players in a first-goal-wins elimination. The matches were staged in an enclosed pitch located on a ship with former footballer Eric Cantona acting in the role of referee.

Besides the TV advertising campaign, the marketing strategy involved the execution of local tournaments in several major capital cities of the world, being held in schools, sport venues and stadiums. 

During these events, interactive CD-ROMs in silver-colored envelopes were handed out to the players, containing the video advertisements that were broadcast on TV. These were very well-valued by the owners, as all this happened in the years when internet was still not worldwide ubiquitous and the only way of watching the advertisements was waiting for them during TV broadcasts. Also, posters with pictures of all the 24 players were handed over, as well as orange bracelets with the campaign scorpion branding.

The song in the advertisement was a new remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation", remixed by Junkie . The song went on to become a Number 1 hit in over 20 countries. 

Following the airing of the commercials, in June 2002 an estimated  2 million children under 16 years competed in matches following the Scorpion KO rules inseveral major cities worldwide, 

Nike considered the campaign a success, with Nike president Mark Parker commenting, "This spring's integrated football marketing initiative was the most comprehensive and successful global campaign ever executed by Nike." and still is today.