Risk Everything

The Context

The 2014 World Cup was played in Brazil, where Nike's athletes competed. Though the brand wasn't an official sponsor it was intent on winning the World Cup with an aggressive social media approach. That approach had to be live and in real time. We needed to be responsive without being able to use photography. We needed to be in SportsCenter without using footage. We needed to be everywhere without being able to show anything from the World Cup. Gauntlet laid.

The Moment

The World Cup is the biggest cultural moment in global sport, unfolding nonstop for a month. Nike wasn't an official sponsor, which meant there was no direct way to participate — even as the entire world's attention was fixed on the tournament.

The challenge was finding a way in without playing by the usual rules.

What I Did

I helped create a world that could exist alongside the World Cup and move with it in real time. We turned Nike's top players into animated characters, giving us the freedom to tell stories without using official footage or imagery.

Each night, we created new work based on what had just happened in the tournament — writing, producing, and delivering animated films that ran immediately on television and across social. I helped design the systems, rhythms, and decision-making clarity that allowed a massive team to operate at that speed, night after night.

At the center was a temporary studio with nearly 200 people working together every day. My role was to bring clarity to the chaos and keep the world alive as culture shifted around it.

What Became Possible

Nike didn't just show up during the World Cup. It built a parallel experience fans could engage with throughout the tournament — effectively hijacking the moment by creating a world of its own.