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.

Tippexperience 2

I was watching some videos on YouTube and, to my surprise, I came across a new version of the Tippex advert which we discussed some time ago in one of the previous classes. The first version was about a bear and a hunter and a viewer could play with various scenarios in the ad like "the hunter feeds the bear" or "the hunter shoots the bear". It turns out that they have launched the second version  of the advert under the name Tippexperience 2. I presume that the previous campaign was so successful that they tried the interactive approach once more. This time the advert is about the same bear and and the same hunter who celebrate bear's birthday and experience various, let's call it "events" during the time. I recommend you to type in "2012" and "2013" :). Enjoy! To see the advert, please visit  http://www.youtube.com/tippexperience2

Best regards,

Natalia

Why videos go viral – a YouTube manager explains

As we discussed in class it is impossible to tell what will make a video go viral. I came across some very interesting and entertaining insights provided by an employee of the online platform that makes it all possible: YouTube.

Kevin Allocca indeed has a very interesting job at YouTube: as a trends manager he gets to "professionally watch YouTube videos". He recently gave a talk at TED about why he believes certain videos are turning into a viral phenomenon. If you don't know TED please make sure to check it out – it offers hundreds of interesting and inspiring talks from the most amazing people. You can watch Allocca's short TED talk here.

Before Allocca shared his insights he explained how the invention of web video was a game changer for the society. Allocca argues that "we all wanna be stars" and that until a few years ago it was almost impossible to make this wish come true. Through online video and platforms like YouTube everything changed: "now everyone or any of the creative things we do can almost instantly become incredibly famous." Of course only a very small percentage of videos ever goes viral. But why does it happen?

Based on his experience Allocca pins down the most important reasons:

• Tastemakers: To make a video go viral there has to be someone who gets it all started. Celebrities who have a huge group of followers on social networks like Twitter and Facebook often are the first step. By simply posting a single tweet TV-host Jimmy Kimmel has already made many videos go viral. Allocca argues that those "tastemakers introduce us to new interesting things and bring them to a larger audience". 


• Community Participation: Once a tastemaker spreads the word, the community takes over. Thus accelerating the process of spreading the content. "A community forms around this shared information and starts to talk about it and to do things with it." A music video is given as an example that now has thousands of parodies on the web. "Unlike the one way entertainment of the 20th century, this community participation is how we become part of the phenomenon by either just spreading the info or creating something new with it. We don't just enjoy now, we participate."

• Unexpectedness: Over 48 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube alone every minute. Allocca points out that only content that is "truly unique and unexpected can stand out". Being totally surprising, humorous and creative seems to be a good approach. 

At the end of his talk Allocca tries to explain the shift that changed media from a one way into an interactive channel: "These are characteristics of a new kind of media and a new kind of culture where anyone has access and the audience defines the popularity. On the internet no one has to green light your idea... These are not characteristics of old media, and they are barely true of the media today. But they will define the entertainment of the future."


From my point of view these insights add to the ones we discussed in class. It is very surprising and interesting to see which videos went viral and to find out why they most likely did. Just look at the examples given in Allocca's talk and you will be stunned by the impressive statistics. Thus it is 99.9 % impossible to produce a viral video on purpose.

I think that tastemakers might play the most important role for a video to go viral. A tastemaker is a true opinion leader. As a single person a tastemaker has the power to reach out to a huge audience of followers that is eagerly waiting for any new piece of information ...