Nike Lebron 12 — CHAZ COOPER

THE KING IS BACK

To promote Lebron James’ twelfth signature shoe, the Nike Lebron 12, I developed a social media and print advertising campaign. For the campaign, I chose to portray two sides of Lebron, a “good” side and a “bad” side, because I found that most people are either a fan of Lebron, or they hate him. Good Lebron wants to spread the new shoes to everyone, but Bad Lebron only wants to keep the shoes to himself. For the two Lebron’s, I created a shoe colorway for each Lebron, one “good” and one “bad”. When the shoe first debuted, Nike would release a new colorway of the shoes every week. The first launch of a new shoe is usually widely sought after in the sneaker culture, so I want to let the fans decide which shoe would release first, Good Lebron’s or Bad Lebron’s. Utilizing Twitter, people would vote for which shoe they want to release first and which shoe would release last. To promote this, I would place these foldout ads in Eastbay, Slam, and other basketball/sport magazines. The ad resembles old boxing posters, since the two Lebrons are going head to head. This would not only give the viewers information about the campaign, but also a poster they can take away.

With the help of Twitter, I created two accounts to promote the shoe, Good Lebron and Bad Lebron. Each week of a new shoe’s release, Bad Lebron would try and sabotage the release, with the goals of keeping them for himself. But Good Lebron is always there setting people straight. Nike would sponsor these tweets, which would hit a broad range of people. These accounts and tweets would not only be entertaining, but they would also promote the shoes.

For the new shoes, I also created a new box. Unlike the standard shoe box we are used to, this box has two sides, each holding a shoe. The box also opens like a book, displaying Lebron’s legendary chalk toss pictures, a popular pregame ritual that he used to perform in Cleveland. With Lebron going back to Cleveland and the release of his new shoes, it was time for a new box. The excitement of buying a new pair of shoes shouldn’t come once you open the box, it should come right when you get the box. I also want this box to be seen as somewhat of a collectible item and not just something you throw away.