skills/creative-director/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/nike-ripple-2013.md

---
id: nike-ripple-2013
title: "Ripple"
brand: Nike
year: 2013
country: US
region: global
industry: sports
pattern: [P16]
category: film
idea_type: execution
involvement: passive_view
channel: digital
duration: campaign
goal: [awareness, purpose]
budget: medium
emotion: [hopeful, bittersweet_pride]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: community
media_epoch: social
awards: [unknown]
quality_score: 6
scalability: universal
risk: safe
confidence: medium
quality: stub_enriched
source_url: http://brockkirby.com/#/ripple/
---

# Ripple (Nike · 2013)

## Insight
Athletic inspiration travels — one person's effort motivates another, who motivates another. The individual act of sport is rarely only individual; it radiates outward into the community it belongs to.

## Mechanic
A film tracking the causal chain of athletic inspiration — one athlete's effort being witnessed by another, who takes it further, who inspires another — visualizing the invisible social transmission of athletic motivation as a ripple effect.

## Why it worked
The ripple metaphor gives Nike a non-transactional role: not a product provider but a catalyst in a larger human circuit of inspiration. The narrative structure (cause-and-effect chain) is satisfying and universally readable across cultures.

## Steal
When the brand's role is catalytic rather than central, tell the story of what happens after the brand's influence is felt. Show the downstream effects, not the moment of purchase. Nike as first cause, human achievement as last effect.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p16]]
- Sibling: [[apple-1984-1984.md|1984]]
- Sibling: [[apple-think-different-1997.md|Think Different]]
- Emotion match: [[always-like-a-girl-2014.md|Like a Girl]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*