1. Case Study | Google Display Network
Jordan Brand used the Google Display Network
to take brand awareness and engagement to
new heights
Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, has one of the most recognizable logos in the
sporting goods industry. A silhouette of Michael Jordan mid-jump graces the
highly-coveted footwear, apparel, and equipment that make Jordan the number one
basketball brand in the U.S.
“The great thing about the brand is that we have a lot of equity,” says Alex Lopez,
About Jordan Brand Director of Brand Connections for Jordan. “To this day consumers are still eagerly
• www.jumpman23.com anticipating our new products. The old scenario of kids lining up outside of stores is
• Beaverton, OR
• A division of NIKE, Inc., Jordan Brand is a
still occurring.”
premium brand of footwear, apparel and
accessories inspired by the legacy of Building energy
Michael Jordan Although his likeness still appears on merchandise, Michael Jordan retired from his
legendary role in the game in 1999. And while basketball fans everywhere know
his name, Jordan Brand is faced with a challenge that gets more difficult with time:
keeping Michael Jordan top of mind as younger consumers get further away from
his heyday. “There’s still a lot of energy for the brand. Our job is to ensure that we
create and continue to build that energy,” explains Alex.
About Wieden+Kennedy, New York
• www.wk.com Looking for new ways to excite and engage youth within basketball culture, Jordan
• New York, NY Brand turned to its agency partner, Wieden+Kennedy, New York (W+K, NY) to help
• Founded in Portland, Oregon, W+K is the largest restart conversations about Michael Jordan. Together, they hatched an idea for a
independently owned advertising agency,
with offices in Amsterdam, London, New York,
campaign that veered from the splashy TV campaigns they traditionally run. As
Tokyo and Shanghai expected, they built an inventive, unique campaign around a basketball player. But
the player was neither Michael Jordan nor another NBA star. It was Leroy Smith.
Goals
• Keep Jordan Brand fresh and top of mind with The man, the campaign
younger consumers “Sophomore year of high school, Leroy Smith took Michael’s spot on the junior
• Connect with a niche audience of basketball varsity team,” explains Jason Clement, Director of Findability and Search for
fanatics, fans, and urban youth W+K NY, of the true story that inspired the campaign. “Michael points to that as
• Create a campaign that consumers could the moment when he realized he needed to work and train harder to become
latch on to
really good.”
Approach With the campaign’s central character chosen (and the real Leroy Smith on board),
• Used unique creative assets and real-life the Jordan and Wieden+Kennedy teams crafted a narrative that would grasp their
character Leroy Smith to create an innovative audience. Played by actor Charlie Murphy, the campaign’s Leroy sells motivational
unbranded Jordan branding campaign
DVDs, promising to teach viewers the same skills he used to dominate Michael
• Generated interest and enthusiasm among
Jordan. The DVDs, along with posters, an iPhone app, and music videos can be
basketball fans with keyword-targeted display
and text ads on the Google Display Network found on his site, www.getyourbasketballon.com. And of course the campaign’s
• Built a full web presence with YouTube videos,
Leroy also has a YouTube Channel, a Facebook profile, and a Twitter feed to
Facebook, Twitter, and more to retain the communicate with his fans.
interest of users
“Creatively, we wanted this to seem like it was coming from the voice of Leroy
Smith,” says Alex, explaining their decision to not brand the campaign. “By not
Results
• Generated fervent audience participation and signing it with a Jordan logo, we activated a lot of discovery about the campaign.”
engagement with campaign
• Received 188M impressions and 296K clicks The ultimate forum
from Google Display Network over 6 week And it was the discovery of rich content that was key to the campaign’s success.
campaign The campaign’s six-week run opened with “Leroy” himself pitching his motivational
• Gained 27,000 YouTube channel views, 6K DVDs in infomercial-style television ads during the NBA playoffs. Google AdWords™
Twitter followers, and 11K Facebook fans search ads captured initial interest and drove proactive searchers to Leroy’s site.

2. To reach additional basketball fans where they were actively spending their time,
About Google Display Network
The Google Display Network offers text, the Jordan and W+K NY teams used the Google Display Network to place a wide
image, rich media, and video advertising on array of display and text ads on blogs and fan sites.
Google properties, YouTube, and millions of web,
domain, video, gaming, and mobile partner sites. By using keyword targeting to automatically place their ads on highly relevant
From mass media to niche sites, advertisers sites on the Google Display Network, the team was able to find the right locations
can find the most engaged audiences, place for their creative more quickly and efficiently than if they had sought out the sites
ads on the most relevant pages, and achieve individually. “It was the easiest way to get scale and make sure we were hyper-
performance at scale through our innovative
targeted,” Jason recalls.
targeting technology. Using our tools, advertisers
can build ads, measure results, optimize The strategy proved effective: “We were able to find a lot of these niche basketball
campaigns, and expand their advertising reach
blogs where we could reach our target with very, very little waste and get
to specific audiences all over the web.
them excited about the campaign.” Jason continues: “It’s all about being in the
environment where you know it’s going to be well-received. The creative is really
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strong but in another environment it could get lost.”
www.google.com/displaynetwork
Leroy Smith banner ad
Once their ads were running, the reporting and optimization controls within the
Display Network enabled the W+K NY team to see which sites were working best
and adjust their targeting appropriately. As excitement over the Leroy Smith
campaign grew, it was clear that it was striking a chord with its audience. “There
were sites where we were getting double-digit clickthrough rates,” recalls Jason.
“Overall, the story of the campaign was just how excited people got about the
message. People were taking screenshots of the ad on their blogs and then writing
posts about how much they liked having the ad on their site.”
When all that enthusiasm was translated into numbers, the Leroy Smith campaign
had generated 188 million impressions and 296,000 clicks over the six weeks it
ran. And users were highly engaged with the content, showing very low
abandonment rates once on site. Video proved compelling as well, with 27,000
YouTube channel views and 229,000 views for Leroy Smith’s “Get Your Basketball
On” infomercial video.
Winning moments
When asked about highlights from the campaign, Alex replies: “For us, one of the
big successes was being able to unlock the opportunity that the Google Display
Network afforded us. It allowed us to utilize a unique, creative message, something
that was going to get noticed, and place it in front of the people who
we wanted to talk to.”
“If you can deliver a compelling story that requires people to take a look, to
engage deeper, to have a visceral reaction, and put it in a place that they’re going
to see it, more often than not you’re going to have a hit on your hands. And the
Google Display Network was really instrumental in helping us achieve that.”
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