SHANGHAI – The football star is Portuguese icon and Spanish club Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo. The brand is American multinational corporation Nike, promoting its CR7 soccer shoe that bears its endorser Cristiano Ronaldo’s initials. The event is Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Ignite Brilliance’ Tour in China, where his target market—Chinese youths whose linga franca is Mandarin, not Portuguese or English. But in a world that speaks the global language of football, it was a team led by Filipino expatriates at AKQA Shanghai such as Eric Cruz and Peepo David that crafted a viral campaign that communicated, not with words, but with brush strokes rendered in the shape of ball splatters crafted by a Filipino artist AJ Dimarucot in Manila.
The creative team behind ‘Ignite Brilliance’ includes:
- Agency: AKQA Shanghai
- Client: Nike
- Executive Creative Director: Eric Cruz
- Creative Directors: Eric Cruz, Peepo David
- Copywriters: Peepo David, William Zhang
- Art Director: Eric Cruz
- Illustrator: AJ Dimarucot
- Producer: Bridget Hong
- Client Partner: Stefan Hawes
- Director: Howie Lam
- Production: Noir Creation
- Executive Producer: Mr. Black
- Producer: Hai Jun
- First A.D.: Peng Xi
- Director of Photography: Shu Chou
- Production Design: Hu Ge
- Original Music: Rec Room
- Sound Design: Rec Room
- VFX Superivisor: Vincent Cheung
- Post Production Manager: Jessie Jin
- Online: Keith
- Editorial: William Lin
- Color: Nikola Stefanovic
- Post Production & Effects: Digital Domain / PO
- Copy: William Zhang
- Producer: Bridget Hong
In correspondence with adobo magazine, Eric Cruz and Peepo David reveal: “The brief to us was to create an online film to announce Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Ignite Brilliance’ Tour in China…without having to shoot Ronaldo. We then thought of this story of a young Ronaldo fanatic who drags his sister along to create a ‘ballsy’ fan art for his idol when he comes to visit the country.
Illustrator AJ Dimarucot previous success and renown for previous Nike designs such those Manny Pacquiao and Michael Jordan made him a natural fit for the campaign. “We approached AJ Dimarucot to make this idea come to life. His style was perfect for how we envisioned the artwork to be—raw, powerful energy, which really carried through the ‘Ignite Brilliance’ concept behind Nike Football. His track record with Nike was also a good sign for us to work with him on this project.”
They reveal the media plans and target audience for the campaign and the current: “The film was done for Greater China, so it was pushed more on Chinese local social media such as Tencent and Weibo. It’s was released as an online film and has gotten some favorable results. Three million plus views from different Chinese social media platforms. We were also lucky enough to get Cristiano Ronaldo’s official FB page post it, which now has 4.4M views.” They note, “Football lovers in China. Next to basketball, this is the biggest sport in the country. So basically everyone.”
