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Nike Never Done Evolving

Problem

The prevailing sentiment for Serena Williams’ retirement was nostalgia. Yet, how do you celebrate a force of constant evolution? Nike challenged this cultural expectation, decoding her greatness to prove what relentless progress truly looks like.

Background

Nike partnered with us to create a new milestone for athletic storytelling, in order to display Serena Williams’ evolution throughout her career and pay tribute to one of the brand’s most important collaborations ever.

Ambition

To present the world with the most detailed visual journey of Serena Williams’ evolution in playing style, enabled by AI and machine learning, to reveal to fans how an athlete’s greatness is forged from countless, unseen details, honed over a lifetime.

IDEA Serena
VS Serena

It took us a year-long study to unleash this unprecedented virtual showdown.

The most advanced technologies in AI and machine learning allowed us to meticulously model Serena Williams' playing styles in 1999 and 2017. Analysing her career data and using Stanford's vid2player technique, two virtual Serenas battled thousands of matches, broadcast globally via livestream, complete with commentary.

A real match, across different eras.
A graphic shows a tennis court with two players: one in red at the top and one in blue at the bottom. Labeled lines indicate ball trajectory, bounce position, player reaction speed, and positions at contact.

Role

Concept development
01

Concept development

Developed the core concept with Nike, fusing creativity, technology and athletic inspiration to decode Serena’s evolution through AI.

AI and machine learning modelling
02

AI and machine learning modelling

Analysed all official tournament data and archival footage, drawing insights to model Serena’s playing style across each era.

Stanford vid2player adaption
03

Stanford vid2player adaption

Adapted Stanford University’s vid2player technique, animating the AI models and rendering both Serenas into scenes that could never be played in real life.

Data and manual analysis
04

Data and manual analysis

Created an original edge computing methodology to detect playing behaviour, adapting to analyse footage from Serena’s career.

Match simulation at scale
05

Match simulation at scale

Generated over 130,000 games and 5,000 matches, building a database of statistics and insights spanning the champion’s career.

Live virtual match production
06

Live virtual match production

Packaged the simulation into a full live virtual match broadcast, produced in under two months.

YouTube livestream and distribution
07

YouTube livestream and distribution

Launched directly to Nike’s 1.69 million YouTube subscribers, with media placements extending the campaign’s reach.

Global campaign for Nike’s 50th Anniversary
08

Global campaign for Nike’s 50th Anniversary

Drew on our global network, bringing together studios in Melbourne, Portland and São Paulo to work as one.

Result

Breaking all of Nike’s organic YouTube view records, Never Done Evolving showcased AI’s power, decoding two decades of athletic evolution into the greatest match never played. This established a new benchmark for data utilisation, with its insights now fueling Nike’s product and athlete development.

  • 1K+%

    Increase in organic views

  • 1.7M

    Nike YouTube subscribers

  • 12M+

    Media impressions

  • 130K

    AI-generated Serena games

  • Grand Prix

    Digital Craft: Curation of Data

  • Gold

    Virtual Technical Achievement

  • Gold

    Digital: Artificial Intelligence

  • Gold

    Digital: Other

  • Gold

    Branded Content: Athlete Storytelling

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