Every Wieden needs a Nike

Wieden+Kennedy is an iconic creative ad agency headquartered in Portland. If you’re reading this you’re probably familiar with them, but stop for a moment. Can you name another agency? Can you name 3? If you can, email, dm, or text me the list. Mostly so I know if someone actually reads these things.

Even if you haven’t heard of Wieden, you certainly know their most famous campaign: Just Do It. Like seriously, the only one that I can think of having lasted longer is Diamonds are Forever. No, I’m not going to search that to learn that I’m probably wrong. 

Just Do It is the 90s. Air Jordan was the coolest. Swishy neon-colored jackets were popular for the first time. Michael Jordan posters were on the wall of my bedroom along with many of my friends. I’m pretty sure I wore a Chicago Bulls hat every day from 1995 to 1997, and when I used a design program on a computer at school the first thing I did was recreate the Nike swish.

Nike owned sports and fashion in the 90s and they built their success on the image created and curated by Wieden. 

They only call Wieden. 

Which leads me to the thesis of this small essay, which is that agencies need the trust of their clients to create exciting and innovative new campaigns and concepts.

That trust, and the financial security that comes with it, allows us to take risks.

I’ve seen this within my own business, but also among peers at agencies throughout the region, which is the fear of messing up and losing a client because a job or idea doesn’t work. There are already enough pressures on us to create top-quality work for bottom-dollar budgets and with a quick turnaround. That unfortunately doesn’t give us time to breathe, rest, reset, and dedicate our attention to solving problems for clients in new creative ways. 

So in short, Nike needs Wieden, but Wieden needs Nike too. And that relationship doesn’t just help Nike, but it helps all of Wieden’s clients the people who work there have the freedom to take creative risks on behalf of their customers. 

Nike needs Wieden, but Wieden needs Nike too

I think the best term to describe how I feel about that relationship is “Professional Jealousy.” I wish Vexing Media had a large, top-dollar client that had the trust in us to create every piece of content for them. Actually I’m certain that every agency either has one client like that or wishes they did.

I also know that the tenuous relationship between agency and client is not always permanent, and I’ve known people to lose jobs and seen businesses struggle when those ties are broken. But from this side of the fence, that grass looks pretty damn green.

PS: Another apt comparison is the patron/artist relationship from renaissance times. I don’t know how to fit that into the narrative of this blog so I’ll just leave it down here.