Analyze how the steps of the strategic communication plan are addressed in the campaign you chose by conducting in-depth research. In your analysis, determine how effectively the campaign implemented each of the steps of the strategic communication campaign plan, which include: 
• RESEARCH: Situation Analysis, (Campaign) Research, Target Audience(s)
• PLANNING: Objectives, Strategy, Key Messages/Themes Objectives
• IMPLEMENTATION: Tactics, Timeline, Budget
WRITING
ASSIGNMENT 1
Sean Ringgold
01/28/24
This paper provides an in-depth analysis of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign featuring Colin
Kaepernick, focusing on how the campaign effectively applied the SUCCESs model proposed by
Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their book “Made to Stick.” The elements of simplicity,
unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotional appeal, and storytelling are examined
through examples from the campaign to highlight its success in raising awareness, engaging the
audience, and reinforcing Nike’s commitment to social responsibility. Heath, C., & Heath, D.
(2008).
Introduction: Nike, a global sports brand recognized for its iconic “Just Do It” slogan,
made waves in 2018 by featuring Colin Kaepernick in its 30th-anniversary campaign.
Kaepernick, known for his social activism and protest against racial injustice during NFL games,
became the face of a campaign that aimed to merge sports, social justice, and brand promotion.
This paper delves into the campaign’s objectives, execution, and the subsequent impact on Nike’s
brand image and consumer engagement. Nike Help. (n.d)
In 2018, Nike embarked on a transformative marketing journey with its 30th-anniversary
“Just Do It” campaign, featuring Colin Kaepernick. This campaign marked a departure from
traditional marketing, incorporating social issues into brand identity. The objectives were multifaceted, aiming to raise awareness of systemic racism, police brutality, and racial profiling while
aligning with Kaepernick’s activism and resonating with diverse demographics. The campaign
also sought to exemplify Nike’s global mission to inspire and innovate for athletes.
The execution was marked by the bold choice of featuring Kaepernick, known for his
controversial kneeling protests. A powerful image of Kaepernick with the quote “Believe in
something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” became the visual centerpiece, distributed
strategically across social media and billboards. The “Nike Dream Crazy” advertisement
reinforced the theme of applauding unconventional dreams, featuring diverse athletes like
LeBron James and Kaepernick. Nike capitalized on Kaepernick’s impact by launching
merchandise, such as a symbolic black jersey, contributing to both the campaign strategy and
brand revenue.
The high-risk nature of the campaign, addressing sensitive social and political issues,
paid off remarkably. In the first 24 hours, Nike earned $43 million worth of media coverage, with
brand mentions increasing by 135%. The “Nike Dream Crazy” ad on YouTube garnered over 2.6
million views. Despite initial concerns, only 13% of consumers reported being less likely to buy
from Nike, affirming the success of the brand’s approach. Data suggested the campaign was less
polarizing than perceived on social media, particularly among Millennials (10%) and Gen Z
(6%).
The subsequent sections of the paper promise a detailed analysis of the specific elements
of the SUCCESs model that contributed to the campaign’s triumph, offering insights into Nike’s
strategic prowess and its broader implications for contemporary marketing practices.
Simplicity: The campaign’s core message, encapsulated in the quote “Believe in
something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” is a testament to its simplicity. The concise
and direct message made it easily understandable and memorable for the audience. The
straightforward call to action resonated with viewers, emphasizing the power of simplicity in
effective communication. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
Unexpectedness: Choosing Colin Kaepernick, a controversial figure known for his
protests during the national anthem, was a bold and unexpected move by Nike. This decision
violated conventional expectations in the sports industry, generating widespread attention and
sparking conversations. The unexpected choice of spokesperson added a layer of intrigue to the
campaign, ensuring it stood out in a crowded advertising landscape. Heath, C., & Heath, D.
(2008).
Concreteness: The campaign utilized concrete imagery, such as the close-up image of
Kaepernick, the iconic Nike swoosh, and the powerful quote. These elements created a vivid
mental picture for viewers, making the message tangible and relatable. The visual representation
became a symbol of the campaign, contributing to its overall effectiveness in conveying a
specific and tangible idea. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
Credibility: Nike established credibility by aligning with Colin Kaepernick, a well-known
athlete with a history of social activism. The association enhanced the campaign’s authenticity, as
Kaepernick’s commitment to social justice added weight to Nike’s messaging. This credibility
lent authority to the campaign’s stance on societal issues, contributing to its success in addressing
complex topics. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
Emotional Appeal: The emotional appeal of the campaign was potent, tapping into the
sentiments surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and social justice. By portraying
Kaepernick as a symbol of sacrifice and courage, Nike connected with consumers on a deep
emotional level. The campaign resonated with individuals who identified with the issues being
addressed, fostering a sense of shared values and emotions. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
Storytelling: The campaign effectively used Kaepernick’s story as a springboard to
address broader social issues and encourage activism. The “Nike Dream Crazy” advertisement
featured various athletes, including Kaepernick, sharing stories of overcoming obstacles. This
storytelling approach turned the campaign into a powerful narrative that inspired action and
showcased Nike’s commitment to social responsibility. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
Conclusion: In conclusion, Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick
successfully applied the SUCCESs model, leveraging simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness,
credibility, emotional appeal, and storytelling. The strategic alignment of these elements
contributed to the campaign’s triumph in raising awareness, engaging diverse audiences, and
reinforcing Nike’s commitment to social activism. This case study serves as a valuable example
for marketers aiming to create impactful and memorable campaigns that transcend traditional
advertising boundaries. Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008).
References:
Get help. What Is Nike’s Mission? | Nike Help. (n.d.). https://www.nike.com/help/a/nikeincmission#
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008). MADE to STICK SUCCESs Model. https://heathbrothers.com.
https://heathbrothers.com/download/mts-made-to-stick-model.pdf
Nero, V. (2020, May 15). How to level up the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. method. Siege Media.

Urvate, B., & Vandegrift, C Talkin Baseball. (n.d.). https://sites.psu.edu/burv/case-study-nikecolin-kaepernick-just-do-it-campaign/
YouTube. (2018, September 6). Colin Kaepernick Nike commercial – full video. YouTube.

COMM 640 – UNIT 2 – Strategic Communication
Campaign: RESEARCH
In the research component we start with the situation analysis. Imagine that you have a
client that has asked you to develop a strategic communication plan. Where do you
begin? You begin with learning and understanding the situation or context of your client.
Your client can be an organization, company, political candidate, nonprofit, celebrity, the
federal government, just about anything.
Analyze the current situation for your client. Are sales up or down? Is the political
candidate known to voters? Is the nonprofit group in need of donations? This is an indepth look into the organization you are representing. For example, familiarize yourself
with the products or services. Know who the competitors are. Learn what the client’s
reputation is in the marketplace.
All the information you gather will be used to perform a SWOT analysis that identifies
the client’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. No strategic
communication plan is successful without doing the necessary research first. Research
takes many forms.
Client research is what we just discussed. But you are not yet done with learning
everything there is to know about your client. You may utilize desk research where you
gather and analyze all the existing materials that your client has, such as business
plans, past public relations campaigns, and competitor analyses.
You review the client’s website and all relevant published material. Depending on your
client’s objectives, which we will get to in the planning component of this model, you
may do custom research. This is where you generate new research on behalf of your
client. You may generate qualitative research, which takes an open ended approach.
Examples include in-depth interviews with key members of targeted publics, opinion
leaders, or experts. Other examples include focus group research with key audience
segments or stakeholder groups. Closed ended research approaches are quantitative
and includes sample surveys, where you determine audience information levels,
attitudes, behaviors, and media habits via mail, online form, telephone, or in person.
Experiments determine which forms of communication or messages may be most
effective with select audiences.
A content analysis is a systematic approach to sampling and analyzing elements of
existing content to identify themes or trends. You may also use social media listening
research to assess public sentiment.
Audience research consists of investigating the audiences sometimes, referred to as
publics, and segmenting these audiences into different categories. As part of your
audience research, you will determine the most important audiences on a priority basis.
This is called targeting. Who is this audience? What are their demographics, such as
age, location, and incomes? What are their psychographics, such as lifestyle
preferences?
Examples include the type of magazines they like to read, the cars they like to drive,
their online reading habits.
Why is this information important to the client? How active or involved is this audience
relative to the clients interests? Which audiences are most important to the client in
priority rank order?
You will not learn about how to conduct a focus group or survey until you take the
research methods course. But you need to know what the different types of research
are, and how to implement them when you write the final paper in this course, where
you will develop your own strategic communication plan. This is the research
component. Next, we will discuss plan
COMM 640 – UNIT 2 – Strategic Communication
Campaign: PLANNING
The first step in the planning component is to determine your client’s objectives. What
does the client want to achieve? What are the specific, intended effects of the strategic
plan on the client’s target audiences?
Does the client want to increase sales? Does the client want to influence public policy?
Does the political candidate want to increase awareness among voters? Does the
nonprofit health group want to change behavior that negatively affects public health?
These questions will help you determine, with input from your client, the goals and
objectives that your client wants to achieve with a strategic communication plan. Now
that you have determined what the objectives are, we will explore how you will achieve
them.
You need a strategic approach. Write out a strategy statement that describes,
conceptually, how the objective will be met. For example, remember the memory game
Lumosity? Lumosity wanted to increase the public’s awareness of its product to
increase sales. To do this, it used a strategy statement that it was able to turn into a
clever slogan to promote its product.
The strategy statement read, Lumosity is a personal trainer for your brain. The idea was
to get people to think that since they would hire a personal trainer to exercise their body,
why not buy the memory game to exercise their brain? The slogan for the product
became, a personal trainer for your brain.
Let’s try this approach for a political candidate President Donald Trump effectively used
the slogan Make America Great Again as the cornerstone of his successful presidential
candidacy. When you are analyzing a strategic communication campaign, as you will do
in the first two papers that you write for this course, look for the campaign’s slogan, if
there is one. The slogan is often the key to understanding what the underlying strategic
approach is.
When writing out a strategy statement, use active buzzwords like leverage, showcase,
employ, highlight, underscore, focus, avoid, initiate, or engage. Lumosity is a memory
game that works like a personal trainer for your brain. Donald Trump wants to make
America great again. Those are strategy statements from which you can derive a slogan
that can serve as the key message of your campaign or plan.
Key messages are concepts that you want your audience to act on. What is the key
message that must be communicated in order to change behavior? If you are
introducing seat belts to car drivers for the first time, you might want to write a
strategystatement that includes the key message, buckle up for safety. Buckle your seat
belt is
an action that you want your target audience to take.
The key message must be compelling and resonate with the target audience. You want
a catchy, memorable, concise theme or slogan that ties the campaign together. Once
you have your key message or slogan, you will use your research tools to test it with
your target audience. Do you remember those focus groups and surveys that I talked
about in the research component of this model? That’s the market research approach
that you would use to test your key message or slogan.
COMM 640 – UNIT 2 – Strategic Communication
Campaign: IMPLEMENTATION
We will now address the implementation component. You need to plan out the specific
communication vehicles that you will use to deliver your plan or campaign to the target
audience. In some areas of strategic communication, this component is known as a
media plan. Will your campaign be delivered to the target audience using online social
media tools only? Will you prepare a traditional advertising campaign? Will you use
public relations methods, such as event planning?
As you develop your media plan, use some key action verbs to help you, such as
develop, create, send, launch, pitch, contact, book, post, and broadcast. To expand on
the Lumosity example already introduced in the planning component, think about how
Lumosity promoted its memory game before the Federal Trade Commission cracked
down on it for false, deceptive, and misleading advertising.
Lumosity’s strategic communication team selected advertising as the communication
vehicle to raise awareness about and generate interest in the product. It was a
multimedia campaign, using television, radio, and online ads.
The campaign also included emails, blog posts, social media, and material on the
company’s website. The choice of media outlets or promotional events are considered
tactics in a campaign. This is the nuts-and-bolts part of the plan that describes in
sequence the specific activities that put the strategies into operation and help to achieve
the stated objectives.
Timing is another element in the implementation component. Consider questions like,
how long do you want your campaign to air on television? Over what period of time will
you send emails or blog posts promoting your plan? Is there a good hook or angle for
when you should launch your campaign?
For example, there are months and days that can provide timely hooks. If you are
promoting a cheese product, you might want to launch on National Cheese Day in June.
National Chocolate Ice Cream Day has great possibilities, or what about Cupcake
Lover’s Day? By the way, strategic communication and public relations are behind the
creation of these special months and days. Did you know that the Hallmark Card
Company was behind the creation of Mother’s Day? You get the idea.
Now we turn to the budget. Your client will have a specific budget. The amount will
determine what kind of a strategic communication plan you can create. The budget also
affects the tactics that you can employ. A low budget likely means no advertising, so
you have to think creatively. Maybe an event will achieve the objective.Good public
relations pros have to design campaigns that meet their client’s budget.
Next, we will explore how to evaluate your campaign once you have created it.
COMM 640 – UNIT 2 – Strategic Communication
Campaign: EVALUATION
Once your strategic communications campaign launches, you then start measuring,
using focus groups, surveys, and other market research tools. You need to constantly
conduct research as your campaign runs. This means you need to measure at the
beginning of your campaign with your benchmark as your campaign continues to unfold
and then at the end of your campaign.
All of these metrics are used to prepare an evaluation report of your effort. Evaluation is
the ongoing, monitoring, and final assessment of your plan. You can use surveys to
measure informational objectives, such as whether your message was received and
remembered.
You can use attitude surveys to determine if your attitudinal objectives are met. If your
goal is to change behavior, you can use surveys to measure your behavioral objectives.
For example, if your campaign is about promoting safety by wearing seat belts, how
many people changed their behavior and started using seat belts after your campaign
launched?
You can also measure output objectives. How many times did your ad run? Around
what shows? This can be measured quantitatively by simply counting the actual output.
Evaluation is critical to the success of your campaign. Here’s why. Remember the Brad
Pitt ad for the famed perfume brand Chanel No. 5?
The ad called “There you are” launched in 2012 and was a pivotal moment for Chanel.
Because it was the first time in the brand’s 92-year history that a man was featured in
the advertising to represent the perfume. Within days of airing, the public criticism and
backlash was so significant that Chanel quickly pulled and re-edited the ad.
You need to quickly make changes if your campaign is not performing as well as you
planned. Campaigns are dynamic entities that can influence popular culture and be
influenced by popular culture. They will be lauded or panned by the media, much like
restaurants and plays are.
By constantly monitoring and evaluating your campaign, you can make needed changes
in a timely manner. We have now concluded our breakdown of the “research, planning,
implementation, and evaluation” model. Learning and understanding this model will help
you develop your own strategic communication plan.
MADE to STICK
SUCCESs Model
A sticky idea is understood, it’s remembered, and it changes something. Sticky ideas of all kinds—ranging from the “kidney thieves” urban
legend to JFK’s “Man on the Moon” speech—have six traits in common. If you make use of these traits in your communication, you’ll make
your ideas stickier. (You don’t need all 6 to have a sticky idea, but it’s fair to say the more, the better!)
PRINCIPLE 1
PRINCIPLE 2
PRINCIPLE 3
PRINCIPLE 4
PRINCIPLE 5
PRINCIPLE 6
SUCCESs
SIMPLE
UNEXPECTED
CONCRETE
Simplicity isn’t about
dumbing down, it’s
about prioritizing.
(Southwest will be
THE low-fare airline.)
What’s the core of
your message? Can
you communicate it
with an analogy or
high-concept pitch?
To get attention,
violate a schema. (The
Nordie who ironed a
shirt…) To hold
attention, use
curiosity gaps. (What
are Saturn’s rings
made of?) Before your
message can stick,
your audience has to
want it.
To be concrete, use
sensory language.
(Think Aesop’s
fables.) Paint a mental
picture. (“A man on
the moon…”)
Remember the Velcro
theory of memory—try
to hook into multiple
types of memory.
www.MADE to STICK.com
CREDIBLE
Ideas can get
credibility from
outside (authorities
or anti-authorities)
or from within, using
human-scale statistics
or vivid details. Let
people “try before
they buy.” (Where’s
the Beef?)
EMOTIONAL
People care about
people, not numbers.
(Remember Rokia.)
Don’t forget the
WIIFY (What’s In It
For You). But identity
appeals can often
trump self-interest.
(“Don’t Mess With
Texas” spoke to
Bubba’s identity.)
STORIES
Stories drive action
through simulation
(what to do) and
inspiration (the
motivation to do it).
Think Jared. Springboard stories (See
Denning’s World Bank
tale) help people see
how an existing
problem might
change.
© 2008 by Chip and Dan Heath. All rights reserved. Do not replicate without written permission.

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