CASE STUDY
Not only is the Super Bowl one of the biggest sporting events in the world – it’s also one of the biggest advertising opportunities. With an average of 70,000 fans traveling to attend the game, Nike smartly taps into the pre-event excitement by bringing a Super Bowl experience to their store closest to each year’s event location. This year, Super Bowl LVIII was set to take place in Las Vegas, and for the fifth time, we were stoked to be their design, production, and installation partner!
Nike’s request was multifaceted: design, produce, and install an immersive and engaging display that highlighted the two competing football teams, celebrated the city of Las Vegas, and gave customers an unforgettable shopping experience. The client provided a campaign VC (visual center) that gave the overall activation feel, brand colors, textures, and images; and the store’s blueprint so we could start reimagining the space. Our engineering team flew out to Vegas to conduct an extensive site survey, gathering any missing specs and assessing the conditions of the space. Once we had that additional information, utilizing the campaign VC, our design team got to work.
In collaboration with engineering, our production and 3D environmental designers cooked up a stacked roster of campaign assets that spanned from floor to ceiling. Inspired by the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign, we created an elevated two-sided dimensional lit Super Bowl LVIII sign surrounded by a custom mannequin platform cluster that became the overall display centerpiece. Flanking the sign were two custom mannequin platforms with powder-coated steel and printed acrylic panels that each housed 11 custom-painted Nike footballs. We also created six custom 9.5-foot-tall wardrobe lockers with LED accents and acrylic merchandise shelving, six custom shoppable shirt shelf fixtures, two 8-foot-tall double-sided lit Silicone Edge Graphics (SEGs), a programmable 6-foot-wide acrylic backlit logo, wall and window graphics, and a separate Air Max display that featured four footwear pedestals and an acrylic-encased digital countdown clock. To make shoppers feel like they were walking on a football field, we produced 1,000 square feet of turf with printed field lines, yardage markers, the NFL shield, and a Nike swoosh. Then, to round out the display, our team designed a 31-foot-wide hanging “halo” representative of Allegiant Stadium that framed the activation.
Successful installation of the elevated dimensional lit Super Bowl LVIII sign required precise engineering. Weighing around 400 pounds and standing 11 feet tall by 8 feet wide, we needed to figure out how to power and stabilize the enormous centerpiece so that it stood safely on its own. We contracted with a local electrician to install an electrical outlet directly above where the sign was set to stand so that power could be dropped from the ceiling. Come installation day, our install team used chain hoists rigged to the ceiling trusses to carefully lift and lower the sign onto the steel base. Finally, we discreetly secured the top of the sign to the ceiling with a steel cable for added stabilization.
With so many individual components and a quick timeline, this was an all-hands-on-deck project. Our production crew came together and finalized, printed, cut, fabricated, finished, and shipped everything in time to meet our installers in Nevada. Then, over the next two nights, our installation team brought the retail display to life. For the week-long activation, tens of thousands of football fans traversed Nike’s turf “field,” geared up in their team’s apparel, and left even more excited for the big game.
We couldn’t be more pleased with how this year’s Super Bowl in-store retail activation turned out. Though Team Infinity didn’t bring home the Lombardi Trophy, we did return home with the Super Bowl LVIII lit sign our team created and are now proudly displaying it in our showroom. Not a bad Las Vegas souvenir, if you ask us!
Ready to get started on your next retail activation? Want to learn more about our services? Hand us a napkin sketch or a full-fledged retail campaign. We’ll bring your project to life!
