In 2021, Ghost Note was hired by Nike NYC to help lead the design and production of the #AquiMeQuedo campaign for this year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade. Our campaign centered on celebrating the multigenerational story of Nuyorican people and the vibrance of their community.

The challenge was to craft and design a campaign made to feel like the real experiences of Nuyoricans (particularly Gen Zers). From copy drafted by and with these voices in mind to creative and artwork that honored the identities and perspectives of this rich culture, Ghost Note’s focus was on producing work that could only be made for the Puerto Rican people of New York. In this effort, we also collaborated with three Nuyorican creatives and the iconic Puerto Rican organization East Harlem Tutorial Program to tell these stories.

As part of our community based strategic approach, we worked with Nuyorican photographers that each represented a different generation of life in East Harlem and filmed selective parts of the video in Puerto Rico. Working with Ricky Flores, Edgar Santana, and Lee Jimenez, we were able to tell the rich stories of Nuyorican creatives and their perspective of the culture.

Using archival photos of the Puerto Rican Day parade from Ricky Flores, film shots of the EHTP community and East Harlem by Edgar Santana, and sights and sounds from Puerto Rico shot by Lee Jimenez.

We combined each person’s style and story into a reel titled “A Nuyorican Love Letter” to live on Nike NYC’s Instagram feed, alongside four other reels that give viewers a glimpse into the cultural emotion of being in one place, from another place, and living in between both.

A Multi Generational Approach to Storytelling

Doubling down on our multi-generational approach, we used the in-feed carousel as an opportunity to further the narrative. With themes of presence in two places at once and the intertwining of two cultural experiences, we created a collage that represented the EHTP community and the larger East Harlem community, with accents of both the past and the present, and the juxtaposition of island life and the urban jungle.

Ghost Note’s campaign was not only successful from a metrics perspective, but also in breaking creative boundaries by filming both in NYC and Puerto Rico. That authentic approach led to high engagement, including Nike NYC’s second highest performing Reel content ever. And that’s a really big win.

Additionally, Ghost Note was awarded as a Silver winner in the Education, Art, & Culture Campaign – Brand category of the inaugural Anthem Awards, presented by the Webby Awards.