JD Sports is a national streetwear institution, but their dominance was being eroded by their rivals and their cultural relevance starting to be overshadowed. 

Coming out of lockdown, the high street retailer had to put in an impressive Christmas period, which involved returning the nation's youth the their rightful place in the culture (and stores) of our streets and town centres. 

The brief was simple - win Christmas - with a fully integrated, global through the line campaign.

JD Sports claims the title of King of Trainers. To assert their dominance on the high street and create some Christmas magic, I created the concept of  JD Street - a whole high street reimagined and elevated by the JD 'King of' positioning.

At the heart of the campaign was an epic 120' TV spot featuring over 30 talent from the worlds of sports, music and entertainment populating our mega high street while a hapless hero goes on a turkey buying mission for his mum. The spot was premiered during the Manchester United, Man City derby and was viewed over 21M times through YouTube, becoming the platform's No.1 ad of the year.

I created and wrote, King of Trims, a six-minute mockumentary set in JD Street's dog grooming parlour, run by Michael Dapaah, Tobi Brown and an exasperated Maya Jama, which was released through TikTok and YouTube attracting over 15M views.

We enlisted the king and queen of street bangers, Toddler T and Shaybo, to create the track, 'Deserve the Finest', for our ad and released it as a download through Spotify and Apple Music. It also became the basis for our JD TikTok dance challenge, which got over 3B engagements during the campaign period.

We created Stay Fresh, a mobile 8 Bit runner game, challenging players to keep their creps fresh while running down JD Street, collecting spuds and avoiding puddles in order to win prizes.

For those who couldn't get back out on the streets, we made a shoppable digital version of the 120' so people could click and purchase while they watched.

We brought JD Street to life through live events featuring food from JD Street shops, Jerk & Dumplings - King of Wings and Jammie Donuts - King of Shakes & Cakes, and live performances and meet and greets from the talent from the TVC.

Our huge, multi-format OOH and in-store campaign featured over 35 talent and 100 outfits, which we shot on set in between takes. The OOH campaign included landmark placements including Stratford Bridge, Piccadilly Lights as well as bus and taxi wraps.

The campaign helped put JD Sports firmly back as cultural kings on the high street while delivering their most profitable Christmas trading period ever, with a 10% YOY uplift.

ROLE: Strategy, Creative Strategy, Manifesto, Concept, Script, Creative Direction