JOHANNESBURG, Jun 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Towering high above downtown Johannesburg stands one of the city's most iconic buildings, the Life Center. At 30 stories and 138 meters high this imposing building, the fourth tallest in Johannesburg, is the site of Nike's (NYSE:NKE) latest interactive digital communications experience.

Flanked by 90m tall images of Cristiano Ronaldo and Robinho is an interactive LED screen almost half a football pitch in size that allows sports fans around the world to write their own headlines and light up the Johannesburg skyline.

The ambitious interactive installation allows fans to submit personal messages to inspire their favorite players, and then see their headline transformed into a huge player animation that will tower over the city of Johannesburg.

The experience forms part of Nike's hugely successful summer that has seen it deliver its best on field product through the recycled National Team Kits and the Elite Series footwear, combined with ongoing communications that continue to build Nike's position as the world's leading football brand.

"We are excited to deliver yet another compelling way to engage and inspire fans around the world and bring them even closer to their heroes," said NIKE, Inc. President and CEO Mark Parker. "It's another great example of how we continue to connect with fans to drive separation and growth for the Nike brand."

Fans can submit a 57 character personal message through Facebook.com/nikefootball, Twitter, Facebook, Mxit (South Africa) and QQ (China) to over 50 of Nike's athletes from around the world. Up to 100 headlines are then selected each night and transformed into digital player animations that are projected across Johannesburg. When a fan's message is used they receive a personalized notification showing them a picture of the headline and the animation created from it.

This is just one way fans can engage with Nike's highly successful Write The Future campaign that has had over 32 million views digitally since its launch less than a month ago.

To Create Your Headline:

Tweet #NikeFuture
See it on a giant JoBurg skyscraper: http://go.nike.com/nikefuture

Facebook.com/nikefootball

Life Center Live Facts:

• Supporting 12 languages across the world (Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish & Turkish)
• Operational from 6pm to 6am daily
• Displaying over 100 individual headlines per night
• Largest Interactive LED screen in Africa
  • 44 meters high by 42 meters wide
  • 207,520 individual LED's making up a linear distance of 2.5km
• 15km of galvanized steel cable make up the frame, 3km more than the distance Wayne Rooney runs on average per game
• Two 90m high player images
• Total size of the wrap is 8,400 square meters - big enough to cover an entire full size regulation football pitch
• Headlines submitted directly by consumers over Facebook, Twitter, QQ (China only), and Mxit (South Africa only)
• Upload time of between 20 minutes - 24hrs for headlines

About Nike

NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned Nike subsidiaries include Cole Haan, which designs, markets and distributes luxury shoes, handbags, accessories and coats; Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories; and Umbro Ltd., a leading United Kingdom-based global football (soccer) brand. For more information, visit www.nikebiz.com.

For more information, including multi-media materials, please visit: www.nikemedia.com

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6334197&lang=en

SOURCE: NIKE, Inc.

Nike Media Relations: 212-367-4447