For women in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region, Nike meant fashion, and exercise meant sweat or a celebration of the masculine side of the sport. Their relationship with the brand was superficial at best.

Nike HQ gathered Sparrow and the marketing directors from nine diverse countries (including Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia) for a Sparrow Day One session in Seoul. We had a single question to answer: “What creative strategy will build brand affinity with women across this broad territory?” The session led to an award-winning print campaign from the advertising team at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) Tokyo: “If you have a body, you are an athlete, and that makes you beautiful.”

Our approach was so effective that Nike HQ brought in Sparrow again, this time to Mexico, where women were working out in precarious balance with their more traditional roles at home and in society. As in AP, the brand needed a female rallying cry. This time, we combined a Sparrow Day One session with exploratory research: in-home friendship groups.

The resulting campaign was a love letter, “Querido México” (“Dear Mexico”), encouraging women to claim the right to exercise on their own terms. The W+K creative director who participated in the Sparrow Day One session told Adweek that “Querido México” is the campaign he is most proud of: “It didn’t win any awards, but during a marathon, women were holding up ‘Dear Mexico’ signs along the way. And I didn’t do that, they did it.”

Querido México - Kickboxer