Client
Nike Football
Company
Wieden + Kennedy
Role
Lead Researcher & Strategist
Reinvigorating Latin American fútbol and connecting with footballers in each country.
Challenge
Latin American football was at a pivotal point. It had an extraordinarily storied past but it’s often judged against European football and falls short. Its influence on the game was in question and the role of the small-sided game is unclear.
We wanted to uncover the real relationship between football, culture, and the small-sided game in Latin America.
Process
Weeks before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, we crisscrossed the continent to meet over 100+ players, coaches, and experts in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. We conducted ethnographies, field visits, football player and coach interviews, and extreme user and expert interviews.
The project manager and myself managed recruiting agencies, professional photographers (these photos are theirs), Spanish-speaking translators and Nike clients for the month on the road. I led the synthesis and sensemaking and then worked with my bosses to bring the story together once I was back in the US.
WHAT IT ALL LED TO
This research project was intended to turn into a campaign. We wrote a brief, designed a photo book to capture, and pitched lots of ideas. Unfortunately a W+K campaign didn’t happen, but our research presentation and learnings directly inspired a mini website full of videos, Inside Small-Sided: Latin America. The learnings from our consumer research project revealed lots of opportunities for product, service, and retail innovation for Latin American audiences.
The Work
Ethnographies
We visited homes to see where and how footballers live, feel the role of football in their lives, and then sat down to have them tell us about it. We met their families, walked around their neighborhoods, and checked out their football gear.
FIELD VISITS & Interviews
We observed behavior and interviewed people about the culture and style of play in everything from dirt fields to pro stadiums.
Extreme Users & EXPERT Interviews
We asked former pros, Nike clients, and sports journalists their thoughts on Latin American football, the style, its future and their country’s style.
