Tiempo Touch of Gold

Twenty years earlier, Ronaldinho and Nike created one of football’s most iconic digital moments: the legendary crossbar film, forever connecting his creativity and magic with Tiempo’s Touch of Gold. In 2025, we saw an opportunity to reignite the Tiempo franchise, celebrating that legacy while making it relevant to a new generation of football consumers.

Over time, Tiempo had lost cultural relevance with younger consumers. Without the same caliber of expressive, dribbling-focused athletes who had elevated the franchise during the Ronaldinho era, the boot had increasingly become associated with more functional positions such as defenders and goalkeepers rather than the creativity and flair it once represented. The challenge wasn’t simply to bring back an iconic product. It was to reclaim Tiempo’s association with creative football and make 20 years of brand heritage meaningful to a generation that hadn’t experienced the original moment.

Rather than relying purely on nostalgia, we connected generations. We brought back the iconic visual codes of Ronaldinho’s Touch of Gold Tiempo while putting that legacy onto the feet of a new generation of Brazilian creative footballers, led by Estêvão Willian and Kerolin. The strategy shifted the conversation from “Remember Ronaldinho?” to “Who carries that magic next?” By connecting an iconic piece of Nike football heritage with two emerging expressions of Brazilian creativity, we used the past not simply to celebrate history, but to reposition Tiempo for its future.

The strategy generated immediate consumer and cultural momentum. The product sold out globally in less than five hours, while key football creators organically amplified the story without paid influencer investment. According to the internal results you provided, the campaign generated more than $50M in earned media value. More importantly, Touch of Gold became the cultural ignition point for the next generation of Tiempo, which launched two months later. That momentum translated beyond the limited-edition drop, with the franchise ultimately delivering a 35% increase in affinity among 14–25-year-olds, demonstrating that we had not only successfully revived an icon, but reintroduced Tiempo to the next generation.