If you are thinking of pursuing a degree in marketing, the job you secure after graduation can be varied and interesting. You could be devising strategic marketing campaigns. Here is an example of what the creative marketing team of Nike did.

Nike lost the chance to be the official sportswear sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics to their biggest competitor, Adidas. This meant that they were not going to get all the exposure and perks of being an official sponsor.

In response, they had to come up with a really great marketing campaign to compensate for it. That is where Nike's "Find Your Greatness" campaign came into play.

The campaign focused on identifying with your everyday athlete. The majority of Nike's consumers don't compete in the Olympics; they are high school basketball players, morning joggers, cyclists, and swimmers. Nike made an amazing and inspirational video about average athletes pushing the limits and finding their own greatness, then they used social media to share the video and engage their consumers. This one video had more than 4 million views, and Nike's campaign was featured in the media almost as much as Adidas was during the Olympics.

What's the moral of this story? Nike's marketing team used an inspirational message as the center of their campaign—one that their consumers could identify with—and ultimately gained as much exposure as Adidas had worldwide. And the best part about the whole thing? Nike didn't even spend half the millions of dollars Adidas did to get an Olympic sponsorship.

If this sounds inspiring, look up here to find out more about what marketing is and who should study marketing.