The biggest sneaker conglomerate, Nike, released an advertisement video just hours after Rafael Nadal won his 21st record shattering and setting Grand Slam in Australia last week. The ad didn’t feature much visual content but focused on the best commentary or umpire calls throughout Rafa’s career ending with the line, “Advantage, Nadal”.
The sports company is known for making amazingly good marketing campaigns featuring some of the best stars in sports like Ronaldo, Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and more.
The advertisement didn’t stop at the video as Nike spread a Black hoarding with the text ‘Advantage, Nadal’ all over the North American continent at places like the Times Square, Crypto.com Arena and more.
However the big story behind the scenes was the fact that Nike kept their chips intact by trusting Rafa and continuing his deal. Recently, Roger Federer left Nike as they refused to increase his deal to $10 Million exact. Federer left Nike and went out in the market shopping for sponsors. The 20 time grand slam winner didn’t take much time to announce his new deal with Uniqlo the Japanese clothing brand.
The deal was worth about $300 Million dollars with Federer also getting a 3% stake in the company worth another $300 Million. The Swiss Maestro now partially owns the Japanese giants and is also sponsored by them in terms of shoes and clothes. Meanwhile, Nike continued their partnership with Rafael Nadal and with Nadal winning the 21st slam before Federer and Djokovic, Nike seemingly have the upperhand when it comes to a collection of athletes on contracts.