Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Steve Tsoi, Nike

Steve Tsoi

VP of marketing, Greater China
Nike
China
Returning member

Steve Tsoi has been with Nike for almost 19 years. He started early as brand initiatives manager and was later promoted to marketing director before being elevated to his current post as vice president for marketing of Nike in Greater China region.

Tsoi himself may not be everpresent at events, but Nike and its influence are everywhere. Nike’s traditional campaign NBA All-Star Weekend is an important time for brands to be noticed. And Nike is attracting younger customers by continually re-shaping a trendy brand image and communicating via all relevant platforms. 

The brand's amplified a call-to-action on Tencent Sports and social channels is leveraging its social channels to engage. Through WeChat’s new ‘@’ function, users can organically bring their friends into live game chat rooms helping Nike change the game on how it engages basketball fans using mobile during its must-win live game moments. 

Throughout his career, Tsoi has been encouraging Nike’s agencies and consumers alike to think of the brand not as a shoe or a commodity, but as a platform of value — and even as a ‘safe place’ for expression. As Tsoi has elevated his early retail-marketing chops to value-based marketing, so has Nike increased its power to challenge ingrained mindsets. Its NBA All-Star Weekend drive won gold in both the mobile and consumer products categories at the 2020 Digital Media Awards. 

In this task, Tsoi and Nike have been blessed with the outstanding talents of Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai's creative work and Mindshare China's advanced data and media chops. This year, Nike won Digital Media Awards gold in data analytics for its Next% campaign used a runner’s speed as a currency to unlock access to an elite running shoe for professionals, stoking demand. 

Prior to Tsoi’s role in Nike, he was a experienced marketer in brands like P&G and Tesco. He has over 20 years experience in brand marketing across FMCG and sports industry. Tsoi continues to apply marketing lessons learnt during his past tenures at Tesco, Gillette and Diageo to this day.