Has Nike sponsorship lost the plot?

Of all the questions we’ve ever posed, this feels the most scary. For years, Nike has set the gold standard for creativity, insight and style. It’s on everyone’s list of iconic brands. It’s the ambushers’ darling, the sina qua non of brand statement. It’s the market leader bar none in sports clothing and accessories, its profitability dwarfs adidas and Puma. And yet the signs are clearly there.

Let’s take two.
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What’s the story?

I remember a Sydney 2000 sponsor leaving me with a big insight about the Games and sponsorship in general. He told me: signing up to Sydney, even thinking about Sydney, forced us to think in terms of a five year plan. I can’t remember when we’d ever done that before. We’d always worked to a rolling three year plan which is, in practice, a one year plan attached to vague thoughts about years two and three.
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