Nike bosses have said the sportswear giant will be investing its ‘largest media spend’ into this year’s Olympics as it ramps up marketing plans.
It is hoped that the marketing push will revive flagging sales as Nike struggles to compete with new, up-and-coming sports brands such as On Running and Hoka, which have grown rapidly in recent years as they have found favour with a new generation of runners.
Nike president of consumer, product and brand Heidi O’Neill said the brand will be spending more on this year’s Olympics than it has on any previous games.
“This Olympics will be our biggest… it will be our largest media spend,” she said, describing the push as the “most investment and the biggest moment for Nike in years”.
O’Neill did not put a specific figure on the amount of spending planned.
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Latest figures reveal that total marketing spend in Nike’s latest quarter was £800m ($1bn), up 10% on the same period last year. It spent £3.5bn ($4.3bn) on marketing over the previous 12 months, an increase of 6%.
O’Neill said marketing was currently “the number one priority investment” for the company, adding that the current strategy is to focus on “fewer, bigger” marketing campaigns.
Nike hired a new chief marketing officer – Nicole Hubbard Graham – at the end of last year, who was tasked with “aligning the company’s brand voice against its next era of growth” in the increasingly competitive sportswear market.
This increased focus on marketing comes at a tough time for the company, as it lost 25% of its stock market value over the past five months.
Market analysts and investors have pointed to the sportswear giant’s lack of innovation for its shrinking market share, while the CEO blamed remote workers for the firm’s poor performance.
