Nike's new marketing mojo unleashed a digital revolution

With the UEFA European Football Championship just around the corner (it takes place from the 8th of June to the 1st of July 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine), it is very interesting to take a look at the marketing strategies of the leading brands in the sports equipment industry.

I recently read a very interesting article in FORTUNE magazine (yes, the traditional printed version) about "Nike’s new marketing mojo". The article reports about a top secret division at Nike's headquarters that has been created with one ultimate goal in mind: to engineer a revolution in marketing. And this revolution takes one of the "world's greatest marketers" that has always had a massive presence in traditional media channels like print and TV, to a new and very online focused marketing approach.

As discussed in class, companies are shifting larger stakes of their marketing budget into online marketing. In this regard it is noteworthy that Nike has cut back its spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. by 40% in three years, even with its total marketing budget reaching a record high of 2.4 billion USD in 2011. In 2010 the company spent almost 800 million USD on nontraditional advertising (including SEM, SEO and social media), a number believed to grow in 2011.

With a series of newly introduced products – like the performance-tracking wristband called "FuelBand" –  that enhance the sports experience through collecting and providing the user with data on his workouts, the world's largest sports company (sales reached 21 billion USD in 2011) has access to a vast amount of data about its users, enabling the company to interact with its consumers through personalized websites and mobile apps more closely than ever before. The company is replacing its one size fits all traditional advertising campaigns with a "repertoire of interactive elements that let Nike communicate directly with its consumers". At recent global events like the 2010 Football World Cup the firm debuted its legendary ads not on TV but launched the films on Facebook and other websites, generating a viral effect with global impact.

The already mentioned "FuelBand" is another good example for Nike's new approach: While I have not seen any traditional commercials about the new "FuelBand" yet, Nike's efforts in the digital world made me watch this short-film that was inspired by the product's claim "Make it count". The film instantly went viral on Facebook and already has more than 5 million views on Youtube. What a great way to introduce a product and generate buzz about this new Apple-style gadget.

From my point of view, it makes a lot of sense for Nike to focus on the digital channels because it gives one of the biggest consumer brands a personal touch again. To be able to interact with a brand on a customized level will be one of the most important parts of future marketing plans.

The Two Screen Super Super Bowl Bowl

It is a constant endeavor of any Internet marketer to tie together various platforms and create greater engagement possibilities. The Super Bowl has thrown up some staggering numbers. This DIY blog post has culled some very interesting numbers and sums up well the take out for CMOs Read Here

Dan Israel @ SapientNitro said “What matters today is how many people with smartphones can be gathered in one location at one time,” “The Super Bowl rules in this category.

Big brands like Best Buy, Chevy, Toyota, Pepsi and Subway have tried to get a bigger bang for their ad buck by creating TV ads which encourage viewers to see the ad and then go the FB, Twitter or Mobile App. ‘Shazam to win a Camry’ – How much more convincing can you be??? You can read this Mobile Marketer article as well.

With 12233 people tweeting a second (towards the end of the game), I just wonder who was reading?