Nike is reaching out to young audiences with a new social media campaign that calls on youth to share their own sports story.
The campaign, called “What do you play for?,” is aimed at getting youth excited about their own involvement with sports and sharing their stories. The effort is a collaboration between the athletics brand and Youth Noise, a social network for teens and social media firm Brickfish.
The new campaign is part of Nike’s push to build an online community in the youth demographic in which youths can share their personal stories about sports and to encourage these youths to be creative about telling their stories visually.
“We want to offer different levels of engagement for youths to get involved in social change activities and this effort encourages them to be photojournalists and share their stories about sports for change,” said Angie Bush, director of strategic partnerships at YouthNoise.
Nike and Youth City are already working together on Play City at www.youthnoise.com/playcity, a social site for youths centered around social issues. The site calls on youths to make a difference in the world by combining their passions for social jusctice with their hobbies. The “What do you play for?” campaign ties into sports.
“The program that we are doing with Nike is about using sports for social change,” Bush said. “We are looking for people that are interested in sports and in activism to combine their passions.”
The campaign at, www.brickfish.com/YN_Nike, calls this youth demographic to demonstrate their own sports ability by sharing photos of themselves in action and uploading them to the social site. The photos will be voted on, and Youth Noise will pick a winner from the 250 highest scoring entries. The winner will be rewarded with $500 cash or a scholarship.
In addition, Youth Noise and Nike will give away prizes for Most Viral and for Sign-up Sweepstakes winners. The campaign runs through May 20, after which the winners will be chosen.
