JANE CHUNG | STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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 I work with executive teams on organizational challenges that emerge at scale—typically when growth, complexity, or transformation introduces risk.

My background includes leading global digital and creative systems at Nike and navigating hyper-growth at Lime across 300+ regulated markets. My work sits at the intersection of taste, systems, and operating structure, focused on the often-invisible architecture required to sustain performance over time.

I partner with C-suite leaders at moments when creative ambition outpaces internal capacity, helping organizations identify and reduce organizational debt—the structural strain that causes strategy, execution, and culture to drift out of alignment under pressure.

Rather than optimizing for short-term output, I help teams design disciplined operating models that preserve brand meaning and allow creative and operational performance to compound over time.

HOME002–INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY

Client: NIKE X AMAZON
Role: EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

002–INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY



PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE WHOLE

Aligning institutional standards with the visceral realities of operational scale.


01. CONTEXT AND TENSION

Restoring Authority Inside a Failed Ecosystem

In 2018, I was tapped to lead Nike’s creative re-entry into the Amazon ecosystem—a partnership that had previously failed due to brand dilution. The mandate was a high-stakes, time-bound institutional intervention: capture Gen Z on their preferred platform while restoring narrative authority inside a commerce engine optimized for speed and conversion.

We inherited a deep dilution legacy:

  • Third-party sellers: Unauthorized distribution that fragmented the brand experience.

  • Gray-market aesthetics: Visual presentations that eroded premium brand value.

  • Transactional assets: Creative content fundamentally misaligned with Nike’s visceral storytelling.

The risk was not underperformance; it was institutional erosion.


02. THE STRATEGIC REFRAME

Governance Through Integration, Not Enforcement

While legal contracts could remove unauthorized sellers, they could not mandate taste or narrative intelligence. The leadership posture had to change.

We reframed the role from:
external enforcer → embedded strategic partner

The objective was not to slow Amazon down, but to install a narrative “brain” inside a transactional machine. Brand integrity would be maintained through shared vocabulary, embedded judgment, and operational fluency. Nike would not sit on top of the system; it would live inside it.


03. THE APPROACH AND PROCESS

Operationalizing Narrative Intelligence

In just over 90 days, we executed a ground-level institutional reset:

  • The Living Playbook: Authored a 300-page curriculum translating Nike’s standards—lighting, environmental context, category-specific logic—into Amazon’s operating language.

  • Embedded Creative Director Model: Integrated directly with Amazon’s on-site teams to establish a culture of critique, teaching the why behind Nike’s visual grit.

  • Systemic Filters: Designed principles for leveraging Amazon’s content libraries and AI tools so even open-source creation was routed through Nike’s brand filters.

Narrative intelligence became operational—not aspirational.


04. THE IMPACT AND PROOF

From Protectionist Hesitation to Primary Investment

TThe intervention proved that a premium brand can scale inside an optimized marketplace without losing its soul—when governance is built through integration.

Immediate Commercial Velocity: Upon organic launch, the entire inventory sold out within the first three weeks.
Institutional Shift: Transitioned Nike leadership from protectionist hesitation to positioning Amazon as a primary investment pillar.
Strategic Validation: Demonstrated that Nike could win on the #1 Gen Z platform without dilution, establishing a new blueprint for heritage brand scaling.


05. THE PERSPECTIVE

Speed Is a Function of Shared Vocabulary, Not Urgency

In large institutional partnerships, brands fail when they attempt to govern through enforcement rather than education. My role was as an Institutional Translator—protecting the sanctity of the brand while respecting the logic of the buy button.

When governance is treated as embedded narrative intelligence:

  • Speed increases
  • Friction decreases
  • Identity compounds instead of erodes

Premium brands don’t lose themselves in world-class machines; they lose themselves when they refuse to learn how those machines think.










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