Nike Celebrates Caitlin Clark's All-Time Scoring Record with Iconic Commercial

Iowa superstar breaks all-time scoring mark on senior day in victory over No. 2 Ohio State
Nike Celebrates Caitlin Clark's All-Time Scoring Record with Iconic Commercial
Nike Celebrates Caitlin Clark's All-Time Scoring Record with Iconic Commercial /
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Another day, another Caitlin Clark celebration from her NIL partner Nike. Moments after the Iowa superstar set the NCAA's all-time scoring record - for men's and women's - topping LSU legend "Pistol" Pete Maravich, the swoosh released a new Clark commercial with creative fit for global icons LeBron, Serena, Tiger or Ronaldo.

Clark finished her senior day with 35 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds in No. 6 Iowa's 93-83 win over No. 2 Ohio State. She now has 3,685 career points.

At the end of the first half, when Clark broke the record, Nike released the 50-second spot across all of their social media accounts, including an Instagram collab post between Nike and Nike Women accounts, with a combined following of 314 million. 

The social media copy read: "It takes a once-in-a-generation player to break a record that’s stood for generations. Congratulations to Caitlin Clark - the new owner of the all-time NCAA scoring record."

In addition to the commercial, Nike launched apparel with the celebratory copy “This was never a long shot” on Nike.com and Fanatics. After setting the women's scoring record, Nike released social media advertisements featuring Clark and the copy “You break it, you own it,” with corresponding jersey t-shirts sold online. Those retails sales set records of their own, breaking Fanatics' NIL numbers previously held by Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Ahead of senior day, Nike and Iowa created massive outdoor advertisements featuring the NCAA's all-time leading women's scorer in Iowa City.

After her history-defining performance, Clark told the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd, “It isn’t what it is without all of you. This is special. I don’t know if you realize what you’re doing for women’s basketball, women’s sports in general, but you’re changing it.”

Clark and Iowa are now head to the Big Ten tournament as the No. 2 seed - behind Ohio State - looking to make another deep run in the NCAA Tournament to avenge their National Championship loss to LSU last season.


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Michael Ehrlich
MICHAEL EHRLICH

Michael Ehrlich is a seasoned sports marketing executive with experience across the global sports brand, athlete representation, media and education sides of the business. The Founder and CEO of Playbook Marketing, Ehrlich consults with brands on all things NIL and athlete partnerships, advises student-athletes on their personal brand building endeavors and is an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the University of Southern California where he teaches a course on athlete communications and marketing. As a writer, his previous bylines include Boardroom, Business of College Sports, DIME Magazine and UPROXX, among others. You can follow him across social media at @MichaelEhrlich and reach out via michael@playbook-marketing.com