Nike Inc. (Nike) was well known for its smart marketing which helped it ambush market its brand in successive editions of FIFA World Cups despite Adidas AG (Adidas) being the official sponsor for the event. The case discusses US-based sports giant, Nike Inc.'s (Nike) 'Vai na Brasileiragem' marketing campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The campaign featuring professional football players such as Phillipe Coutinho, Willian Borges da Silva, and Tiago Silva in the dressing room was launched with the aim of inspiring the Brazilian team to win their sixth football World Cup. In addition to the campaign, Nike launched a 'Believe' series on mobiles featuring Brazilian football player, Neymar da Silva Santos Jnior. Nike tasted success with its Brasileiragem campaign as it earned over 25.6 million views and more than 100.5 million impressions. Nike's Believe series also generated over 100 million views and 50 million engagements on several social platforms. The sports giant also gained huge brand recognition when both the teams it sponsored - France and Croatia -became the finalists in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Some analysts felt that Nike had yet again successfully ambushed German sportswear giant Adidas as more than 50% of the consumers were under the impression that Nike was the official sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup even though Adidas was the official tournament sponsor. However, some critics felt that going forward, Nike had to increase its marketing expenditure and come out with cooler products if it was to compete effectively with Adidas, which was rapidly closing the gap with Nike. INTRODUCTION In June 2018, US-based sportswear giant Nike Inc. (Nike) launched a new advertising campaign called 'Vai na Brasileiragem ' during the build up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia. The campaign was launched with the aim of inspiring the Brazilian team to win their sixth football World Cup. The advertisement featured professional football players such as Phillipe Coutinho, Willian Borges da Silva, and Tiago Silva in the dressing room. It also showed Brazilian children of all ages in the favelas , streets, and playgrounds across Brazil recreating the tricks and skills of their heroes who were out to avenge Brazil's loss to Germany on their home turf in the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final. The video also had a short cameo by former Brazilian football player, Ronaldo Nazario (Ronaldo), which recreated his iconic Rio airport moment from Nike's 1998 advertising campaign... ABOUT NIKE The history of Nike dated back to 1957 when Phil Knight (Knight), an undergraduate student and middle-distance athlete at the University of Oregon, and his athletics coach, Bill Bowerman (Bowerman), realized the need for a good quality American sports shoe. After graduation, Knight joined the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. While preparing a class assignment paper, it occurred to Knight that low cost, high quality running shoes, imported from Asian countries like Japan, where labor was cheap, could be sold in the US and could end Germany's domination of the sports shoe industry... NIKE'S PAST MARKETING CAMPAIGNS In the initial days of the company being established, Nike relied on conventional marketing strategies to promote its products. The company's staff took care of all its products. The company's staff took care of all its advertising activities. Until 1976, Nike did not hire an advertising agency. Other than print ads, it also focused on sponsorships and celebrity endorsements of its products. However, in 1982, Nike hired the services of American advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy (Wieden) for the first time. In partnership with Wieden, Nike started airing television ads of its products. The sports giant also emphasized the technical superiority of its products in its ads and positioned itself as a brand for serious athletes. Nike also promoted its products as fashion accessories for young customers... 'VAI NA BRASILEIRAGEM' CAMPAIGN In November 2017, FIFA announced that the 2018 football World Cup would be broadcast to more than 200 countries. Nike felt that the event offered it a huge opportunity to gain brand recognition and market its products to consumers worldwide. According to FIFA, the tournament would attract 3.2 billion viewers. However, a 100 million-a-year partnership fee for being an official sponsor was too expensive for some brands , while others were elbowed out by their rival already clinching the exclusive deal. .. THE RESULTS Both Nike and Adidas made money by selling footwear, apparel, and sporting equipment. Before the FIFA World Cup 2018 had started, a comparison between Nike and Adidas revealed that while Nike cornered a major part of its sales from the footwear segment, Adidas generated most of its revenues by selling apparel followed by footwear and other sports equipment. They also pointed out that while North America was the major market for Nike, Western Europe was a huge market for Adidas for the year ended May 2017.. CRITICISM While the Nike 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign received appreciation from several quarters, some critics felt that the campaign focused only on Brazil and that its performance outside Brazil was lackluster. According to Graham Page, Managing Director Offer and Innovation at UK-based data insights and consulting company Kantar Millward Brown, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Nike campaign lacked a narrative... LOOKING AHEAD Some critics pointed out that for the year 2018, Adidas's expenditure stood at US$3.5 billion, representing around 14% of its revenues whereas Nike spent US$3.8 billion on marketing, which represented 10% of its revenues. They felt that Nike could increase its marketing spent in future since its revenues stood at US$39.1 billion for the FY ended 2019. On the other hand, Adidas recorded revenues of US$26.4 billion or 23.64 billion for the same period... Answer the following: What is the concept of ambush marketing and the issues and challenges associated with it? What do you think are the importance of sporting events and sponsorships for sales promotion and increasing brand awareness and engagement with target audience? Explain the effectiveness of Nike's 'Vai na Brasileiragem' campaign for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Comment on the increasing importance of social media as a cost effective tool for marketing communication