NIKE: Never Done Evolving

Recreating Serena Williams as AI avatars. - 50th annyversary campaign - AKQA

Nike, together with AKQA studios in Melbourne, Portland and São Paulo traveled back in time to create a match-up between Serena from her first Grand Slam at the 1999 US Open versus her most recent at the 2017 Australian Open. The goal was to gain insight on how Serena got to where she is today and how she keeps challenging the future.

Machine learning was able to model each era’s playing style: decision making, shot selection, reactivity, recovery and agility based on archival footage.

AI Avatars

We recreated Serena Williams in two stages of her life: 1999 and 2017. The avatars were used to represent both Machina Learning models facing each other during the live stream of the game. 

The avatars represented each AI model during the game broadcast.

The final renders were stylized to match the sprites extracted from real game footage.

This project was awarded a Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes 

Team

AKQA - Agency

Leone Damião
Luiza Baffa
Luciana Cani
Diego Machado
Hugo Veiga
Gabriel França
Daniel Neme

AKQA - Agency

Bruno Pereira
Anderson L.
Kauê Akimoto
Enoch Lui
Teiano Lesa
Stella Gafo
Marilia Alves

MUSIC
HEFTY

ZEBRA
3D Artist: Guilherme Schneider
Fashion Director: Andressa Castaman