To talk about football is to talk about passion and 90 minutes are little compared to the dimension it has in Latin Americans’ young hearts. At least for the group of boys engaged in this cause, they talk about football all the time. They are always ready for the next game, always open to discuss moves and plays. Their lives are moved by this passion. At school, in the field, out with friends and during their leisure time football is always there.



The Football Obsessed Teen (FOT) is a wonderful subject for a sports marketer like Nike, who engaged us to figure out what the FOT teens need in order to go after their aspirations. Nike commissioned of BOLA Design, Box1824 and J. Langvad & Co., who were already collaborating on a number of other projects, to do this unconventional research project.

We were asked to do the first ever ethnographic study of football obsessed teens profile in Latin America to generate findings and insights which can completely change the way Nike’s marketing team engages with its consumers.

We are the visual think tank for Nike who wants to be the most authentic football brand in the Latin American football universe. And in keeping with our mission of a visual panorama, this guide features videos, photographs, information design, verbatim quotes, thoughts, perceptions, profiles and comments collected in the Latin American football capitals: Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Here are some methods which kicked this project and changed the playing field of research:

Setting Invasion: Our unique qualitative research methodology takes place within the setting where consumers develop their strongest relationship with the brand. We were with the FOTs on-pitch, studying their motivations to train, play and compete and most important, getting up close and personal about connecting with football from an emotional point of view. We followed them off-pitch to understand the context they live in, who they are and what is relevant in their lives.

Photographic Study: We created a fist ever visual diary of the FOT. The intention was to further enrich the information tiers of the behavior research.

Virtual Ethnography: A team specialized in digital interaction was in touch with several of the FOT respondents, we studied their habits linked to digital medias and asked questions to complement the on-site research.

Future Scope: Most research case studies would end here. Ours has only started the journey, as we are pioneers of the visual digital age. We feel that this relationship we have built with the FOTs will go from strength to strength. We have already built an equation of trust and respect, and it’s up to us to keep this dialogue going for more revealing studies and aspects of FOT behavior.