I attended a talk with Azeema Magazine, a London-based magazine that features stories and voices from women from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and diasporas. They spoke about how their magazine was born, who it’s for, what its purpose is, and their recent partnership with Nike, explaining how their political message can be authentically communicated through a brand campaign.
Azeema is a magazine that is entirely community-focused. The printed object is the base to this while their social media is where they can communicate directly with them. It’s because of this focus that they chose to do their collaboration with Nike.
Nike is a brand that hasn’t been afraid to take a stand for their political beliefs, just look at their ‘Dream Crazy’ campaign with racial justice activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The campaign aligned Kaepernick’s purpose with their brand values, not trying to speak directly to his community but to express their values through a worthy cause and widen the brand’s appeal to a bigger audience.
Azeema meets Nike – how brands can take a stand
With Azeema it appears they have taken the same approach. Azeema created a short film to support the launch of Nike’s Victory Swim collection, the next step after their Pro Hijab this is a collection of high-performance modest swimwear. This brand partnership was the perfect fit for Azeema, as the products are directly related to their communities needs.
At the talk Jameela Elfaki, Azeems Editor-in-Chief explained that the reason they decided to take on this partnership is that it benefited their community. She said that in the past, she has been hesitant to work with brands, as she doesn’t believe they truly have her community’s interests at heart. She stated that when they have worked with brands before they have pulled out of the partnership because they didn’t respect what Azeema wanted.
The campaign with Nike is a perfect example of how activism can be communicated through brand partnerships if the aims of both the brand and the activists are aligned. Azeema wanted to empower their community and show them that the world of sport was equally accessible to them, and Nike is creating the products that enable this.
Nike’s secret sauce – reaching wider audiences with community value
Noor Alabdulbaqi, Senior Editor at Azeema noted how she believed Nike reached out to them because their community is quite a niche, and it is this niche that Nike wanted to gain access to. By teaming up with Azeema, who are trusted and respected by this community, they can tap into a wider audience, uplifting and empowering them in a way that feels authentic because it is made by this community for the community.
So, Nike has developed a secret sauce; find activists that align with your brand values that represent the community you want to gain access to. Respect what they want from the project, their values and goals, and create a campaign that gives something valuable to that community.
You can watch their short film here, read more about their partnership here and explore Azeema here.
