Nike rolls out first mobile campaign in China via Tencent's WeChat

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


After preparations since February, Nike is rolling out its first mobile campaign via WeChat, the Tencent technologies offering that is currently China's most popular social messaging app.

Calling it a 'sports brand subscription platform' with a 'Nike sports-on-the-go' concept, the brand will launch its official WeChat account, which is available on Android and Apple smartphones from 23 August onwards—in time for the Nike Festival Of Sport 2012 taking place in Shanghai until the 26th.

Before that, the QR code (above) is being utilised as a teaser ad for online display and outdoor advertising, such as on Baidu, taxis, posters, billboards, and on retail flyers, to draw attention to Nike's WeChat platform.

More than 100 million WeChat users will be able to opt-in to subscribe to Nike's account. Upon subscription, fans will be able to activate daily news feeds from Nike.

“WeChat is our ultimate platform to build up our CRM system,” said Vicky Huang, media manager of Nike Greater China. “We want to deepen the connection with consumers, from broadcasting to conversing, from 'one to many' to 'one to one'," she added.

“We chose the WeChat platform because mobile penetration for China's youths is extremely high, tipping over 50 per cent. In terms of usage habits, they practically depend on their mobiles for all forms of communication,” explained Stella Jamie Lui, digital partner of Team Nike at Mindshare.

RazorFish's Carolina Lam and Martin Li will be responsible for pushing daily content on the Nike WeChat brand subscription platform. Nike's mobile campaign will be launched in three phases. In the second phase, Tencent has allowed Nike's agencies on its open API (application programming interface) to integrate existing sports applications such as the Nike+ running app with WeChat.

Different from traditional text-based mobile communication tools such as QQ, SMS/MMS etc, WeChat supports voice chats (one to one and group) as well as sharing of photos and videos.

A Tencent spokesperson told Campaign Asia-Pacific that other multinational brands such as Pepsi and Starbucks have used WeChat for mobile campaigns before, but Nike is the first sports brand to do so in China.

Source: http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/311889,nike-rolls-out-first-mobile-campaign-in-china-via-tencents-wechat.aspx?

Nike Rolls Out its First Social Loyalty Program via Facebook in Hong Kong

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Typically, using hashtags on Facebook is redundant. But for Nike Hong Kong, you can show off how sporty you are by posting on the social network sporting activities you’ve completed, earn points, and get rewarded.

Instead of a viral video traveling around the world inspiring fans, Nike Hong Kong knows the way to get youths in the city to participate and engage with its Make It Count campaign is by taking the gamification approach leveraging Facebook’s social graph.

Targeting youngsters aged 15 to 25, they first need to visit Nike Hong Kong’s campaign site to register via their Facebook logins.

The system will analyze the user’s account to determine how sporty they are and award basic points.

To earn more points, participants have to complete a number of “missions,” ranging from sporting activities such as running, skateboarding, football to basketball as well as other outdoor activities like walking a pet, taking a picture of their sports gear, or attending a Latin dance class.

After completing the missions, participants would need to share on Facebook either through a status update, photo upload, or location check-in using the #makeitcount hashtag to accumulate points.

The accumulated points will be used to redeem “rewards” for Nike products or join sporting events. For instance, with 7,000 points, a user can exchange for a gym sack but will need 22,000 points to attend Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco in October.

“It is the first loyalty program that leveraged on the organic function of social media,” said Jade Lau, brand communications manager for Nike Hong Kong.

She explained after users joined the campaign, they could tell their friends about the completed activities via the social platform and the system would automatically reward them with points that could be exchanged for rewards and special sporting events.

The campaign, supported by its digital agency Razorfish in Hong Kong, aims to educate users on the concept of “make it count” and get them to add the campaign hashtag on social media. The campaign will begin on Facebook initially, with plans to extend to China’s Weibo and photo sharing social network Instagram in the coming weeks.

Make It Count rolled out in March and has been gaining momentum since, with more than 20,000 users signed up and over 70,000 missions completed.

According to Nike, no traditional media was used in this campaign. Instead it is run mainly from its campaign site and Facebook, supported by major local media portals such as Yahoo, Sina, Apple Daily, On.cc, and vertical sites.

However, a recent mission under the football category is aligned with an outdoor event that featured a digital installation in Langham Place shopping mall. The mission merged with another campaign called My Time Is Now, which ran concurrently. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNIky-Mb3m4

Because Make It Count Hong Kong relies heavily on Facebook’s API, one of the key challenges was to integrate with the social platform seamlessly as many unexpected issues occurred such as errors during deployment that were outside of the agency’s control.

Razorfish’s advice if you plan to do a similar campaign of this scale leveraging Facebook or other social media platforms: sufficient testing time is critical.

Make It Count in Hong Kong will run till the end of this year.

Source:  http://www.clickz.asia/7666/nike-rallies-hong-kong-youths-to-make-it-count-by-earning-points-off-facebook

Nike Plans Real-Time Olympics Ads on Twitter

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Nike is not an official sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics, but it is seeking to capitalize on the Games indirectly.

When the Team USA men’s basketball team is playing, the Jordan brand will include spontaneous real-time comments about the game in its promoted tweets. These Twitter ads will also contain pre-planned brand content and links.

The Twitter effort, orchestrated by digital agency 140 Proof, is part of Jordan’s inspirational #riseabove marketing campaign. During the Olympic competition, the brand’s promoted tweets will be updated within seconds with timely comments that Nike first posts to its regular Twitter following.

The promoted tweets are aimed at a broad audience of sport enthusiasts far beyond Nike’s pool of Twitter followers. By tapping into real-time action, Jordan hopes to prompt non-followers caught up in Olympic fever to retweet and share its promoted tweets, thus amplifying the buzz around Jordan’s #riseabove campaign. “When people who are simultaneously watching sports and tweeting, see a promoted tweet about the real-time game or score, then it’s not an ad anymore, but an information tool,” says John Moonigian III, 140 Proof co-founder and CTO.

As a lead-up to the live-action Olympics Twitter ads, on July 3 Jordan began a series of promoted tweets that tout the brand’s #riseabove short film series and introduce an Instagram crowdsourced #riseabove photo contest.

The Twitter ads appear on the Twitter feeds of people who follow basketball and Olympics-related accounts. “To identify our target, we focus on what accounts people follow on Twitter, rather than what they post,” says Moonigian. “That’s because a lot more people read content on Twitter than post content.” In addition to the Twitter site itself, the agency is placing the promoted tweets on the leading online and mobile apps that people use to access their Twitter feeds, such as TweetCaster and Echofon.

Campaign metrics include the number of retweets, replies, and sharing as well as the volume of positive sentiment. “Simple affirmations like ‘LOL’ are not counted as being as valuable as people adding photos or their own thoughts” to the brand-sponsored tweets, Moonigian says.

140 Proof has also targeted and delivered social ads tied to live sports events for ESPN and GM. ESPN ran timely social media ads during the Summer X games in June and GM’s Chevrolet ran social ads during the 2012 Super Bowl. The Chevy campaign resulted in more than 52 million social impressions and drove more than 120,000 downloads of the “Chevy Game Time” app, per the agency.

But does monitoring Twitter and other social media distract people from the actual televised game? Research says no. A recent study by Time Warner Research Council reports that interacting with social media on a second screen gets people more involved with TV programming than if they were watching it without social media. NBC Sports’ editorial teams are working with Facebook to produce social media segments that will bebroadcast throughout the Olympic games on the NBC network.

When it comes to social advertising during live televised sports, Moonigian says Twitter has the edge over Facebook. Twitter is faster, shorter and more public. The best social ads have a brief timely message with a clear, simple request for a public answer or picture, which is what Twitter is good at, he says.

But the advertiser has to accept a certain amount of volatility. “When you plan Twitter ads tied to big sporting events, you don’t know who is going to win, or what people are going to say. But you do know that the event is going to be discussed,” and the advertiser can be part of that, he says.

Nike Building Twist

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Zenith Comment:  Great idea to illustrate the the features of the new Free footwear from Nike in Japan.  Local PUMA could look at features of new footwear to see if there is anything they could use in a similar way on future campaigns.  Check out the link to Free Face in the article below which is a website that Nike also developed to promote the new Free footwear.

You’ve probably played with Nike’s “Free Face” campaign over the last few weeks, and this is the next instalment called “Building Twist”. Nike Building Twist is an interactive projection mapping experience controlled by a shoe that’s been wired up with a bunch of pressure sensors and plugged into an Arduino board, allowing users to literally twist a building like you can the shoe.

The pressure sensors control dynamic projection mapping installation in real-time, creating a very cool hands on experience for Nike.

Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/nike-building-twist-interactive-projection-mapping/

Nike Implements RSVP system for Sneaker Release

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


Zenith Comment: Nice example of using Twitter to reserve new product. It will take away a lot of the PR that is normally generated around their product releases but as the article states, the PR is not always that good.  

The line-up, camp-out, carnival-like atmosphere as well as the occasional riot and stampede will all be a thing of the past very soon. Perhaps to stemmed the ongoing negative press over its practices for exclusive edition launches, Nike is setting the stage for a new Twitter RSVP system for sneaker releases. A high tech solution to eliminate all the unfavorable experiences relating to the line-up, the new process also ensures an amount of fairness among all sneakerheads. To start, simply follow the Twitter  feed of your nearest Nike  Store or NikeTown retail point. Prior to a major release, Nike  will inform potential buyer of a designated date for RSVP. On the said date, stores will begin tweeting time for the RSVP process to begin. Once the RSVP starts, potential buyers much Direct Message the store within 60 minutes and include:

1> Product Specific #Tag Sent Out By The Store

2> Last 4 Digits Of Your ID – State, Passport, Military, or School

3> Your Shoe Size

RSVP confirmation will be in the form of Direct Message from the store to you. Similar to an actual line-up, all sizes will be available via a “first respond, first serve” basis. Customers with confirmed RSVP must present identification and pick up their product in person on the day of the launch.

With the introduction of the Twitter RSVP system, Nike will also ban all midnight in-store releases, in turn, eliminating all line-up and camp-out. While the new procedure only accounts for Nike retail locations and not third-party outfit such as Foot Locker, it is the label’s way to ensure fairness and the safety of its consumers.

The new Twitter RSVP system will start tomorrow, April 19th, as Nike gets ready to launch the Air Jordan XII Retro “Playoffs” on April 21st. For detailed instruction and a list of Nike Store/NikeTown Twitter Accounts, simply see the full disclosure below.

Path Adds Nike+ Integration, Lets You Share Running Data With Friends

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


Nike will unleash the application programming interface (API) for NikeFuel — the company’s metric for tracking physical activity — during a music hackathon Sunday at South by Southwest.

NikeFuel is the technology behind Nike’s FuelBand, a waterproof wristband introduced in January that measures a user’s movement and syncs with an iPod touch or iPhone.

The API will allow third-party music developers to infuse NikeFuel features into their apps or platforms.

“Nike will be joining the Managers Hack to open up a BETA version of the NikeFuel API for the first time to developers interested in combining music with the Nike+ FuelBand,” hackathon organizer and rep at startupBackplane told Mashable Friday.

Backplane, which created Lady Gaga’s new Little Monsters social network, along with music-streaming serviceSpotify organized the hackathon to build the future of digital music distribution.

At the event, hackers have eight hours to create and plan a demo that will be judged by a panel of music industry managers, including Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter (who co-founded Backplane), Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun and Roc Nation President Jay Brown. People from Spotify, Pandora, Nike andSoundHound also will help choose a winner.

The Managers Hack will be live streamed (see video below) starting at 3 p.m. ET.

Randi Zuckerberg, who left her role as marketing director at Facebook in August to launch RtoZ Media, will provide commentary throughout the event.

Source:  http://mashable.com/2012/03/11/nike-nikefuel-api-music-hackathon/

Pinterest Competitor Analysis / Review

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


Zenith Comment (Yen Yip):  Following on from the Pinterst posts, below is a review on competitors boards along with a few thoughts on what PUMA could add.


Besides Puma (150 followers), Nike Running (59 followers) & Adidas (95 followers), other competitors like Reebok, New Balance, Converse have also started their Pinterest boards.



Reebok UK (12 followers) - http://pinterest.com/reebokuk/

• Pinned number of videos to promote Reebok CrossFit 
• Here's a youtube video recorded the Flash Mob event in downtown Toronto on Feb 22 last Thu http://pinterest.com/pin/283445370267554421/ 
• It would be nice if Puma APAC can create an account and pin event videos for Social!

Reebok Sports (2 followers) - http://pinterest.com/rbksportsclub/

• Haven't post up anything yet, but created 6 Boards including Tennis, SPA, Fitness, Life Style, Sports, Niños

Reebok Hockey (13 followers) - http://pinterest.com/reebokhockey/

• Not much has been updated, but they have also pinned a video promoting "Reepower"
• Since Vimeo.com cannot be pinned right now (only youtube video allowed at the moment), they posted a link on Videos board where you can go directly to their Vimeo page

New Balance (12 followers) - http://pinterest.com/newbalance/

• Only one board pinning their NB Lifestyle products, not attractive for consumers

Converse (6 followers) - http://pinterest.com/conversechile/

• Getting organized and they are pinning snap shots with people wearing Converse. 
• It would be nice if Puma APAC can create an account and start collecting snap shots too

With our existing Puma boards, there's no video posted up yet, which it would be a good start if we can link some event/concert short clips for FAAS & Social across APAC. There's a video pinned from a potential Nike fans:

• Posted on Pinterest : Recovery - Nike Football http://pinterest.com/pin/148196643958088851/
• Originally on Youtube : Nike Football Training Camp / Pro: Episode 2 Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MOzLL3n1X90

Last but not least, there's other promotion we can do targeting Pinterest users, this app got 11.3M monthly users and 1.4M fans (Like) on Facebook.

• Starbucks is giving away Free Giftcards - http://pinterest.com/pin/100345897917314631/

PUMA on Pinterest....

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


PUMA are on Pinterest already and are ahead of competitors Nike and Adidas on followers, boards and pins.


http://pinterest.com/puma/
http://pinterest.com/nikerunning/
http://pinterest.com/nikebasketball/
http://pinterest.com/adidas/

Nike Facebook Store

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

I picked up on this through friends in Australia on Facebook.  Nike went live on their various Facebook pages last week with an integrated store into all their brand pages (Nike Football, Nike Surfing, Nike Running, etc.).  


This is being housed on a custom application within Facebook and the checkout / shopping cart process keeps you within Facebook too which is something you don't see very often.  You can also like any of the products which will show on your newsfeed, amplyfying the Nike brand and products.  When you authorise the application if prefills your name and additional details to the checkout process.  Also when the application loads it personalises it bying saying 'Hello Nicola'.

Direct link to the app -> https://apps.facebook.com/nikestorerunau

Tab on Nike Running page -> https://www.facebook.com/nikerunningau?sk=app_117662675018511

Do you know if this is something that PUMA globally / regionally / locally are looking at doing?


Source: Nicola Yates

Nike's interactive video campaign lacks personal touch

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Wieden + Kennedy NY has launched Nike Jordan's newest shoe, the CP3.V, with a 180 degree interactive video. 

 

The video puts you into the middle of a fast break, the most chaotic situation in basketball, and allows you control what goes on around you.

Quick Controls Chaos, created for the Nike Jordan brand, allows you to choose which angle you view the game by sliding your mouse across the screen. To capitalise on the chaos, you can click on any unusual action on the court to watch it played back in full. 

From a horse galloping into the game to a woman falling into the arms of a basketball player, there's plenty of action to choose from. Alongside pop-ups to view more video content, there are quotes you can click on or you can see the shoe worn by the players in more detail.

Using 17 Red cameras to capture the action, Wieden + Kennedy created this ad which relies on over 100 streaming videos that are swapped out as users change angles on its dedicated website. It's a slightly surreal experience but plays the chaos idea to the max. As it's so fast paced, it's sometimes hard to catch the buttons to display more about the shoes or additional videos, but if you are really interested in finding out more you can replay the main video.

Though this is very technically advanced, it lacks the personalisation that other interactive video campaigns have used. The Man vs. Bear campaign for Tipp-Ex in the UK allows you to choose what a hunter will do to a bear after whiting out the original title (we tried kissing, eating and dancing with but the options are endless). The Desperados Experience takes this one step further by not only collecting details of your age and location to let you into the party, but by allowing you to connect via Facebook, it includes images of your friends. When the video ends with your face tattooed on some man's chest, it's a no brainer to share online. 

With this level of sophistication of interactive video entering the market, it'll take a lot to impress consumers but they will be more willing to watch if you do keep them involved. As long as the ways of gathering consumer stats are cleverly embedded in the action, advertisers will have more consumer insight into video than ever before. It's a missed opportunity if you do otherwise.

Source: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/8709-nike-s-interactive-video-campaign-lacks-personal-touch?utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily_pulse 

 

Check Out Nike's Cool Augmented Reality Running Campaign

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Nike has a cool new augmented reality (AR) campaign:

It involves 50 runners who wore "Flash" running jackets (which are entirely reflective) hooked up to GPS systems, while they ran around Vienna, Austria, for 90 minutes as participants tracked them with a mobile app (via Simply Zesty):

"To catch the flash, participants would have to take a photo of the runner, which would reveal the special number as the flash hit the jacket. Because the jackets were made of light reflective material, it meant that the flash would reveal the number and whoever catches the most flashes wins the game."

It's one of several AR campaigns Nike's done recently. Last year Nike India launched an app where consumers could point their phones at the print ads with the AR code "and watch animated content featuring the people and the products in that particular ad along with other information about the Nike Sportswear collection," according to the Hindu Business Line.

Lots of brands are getting on board with AR and mobile campaigns, including a number of retailers, like Calvin Klein, Ray-Ban and Tesco. It's a smart, innovative way for brands to advertise, because it engages consumers, and for that reason, the ad is much more memorable. It's also not as intrusive as a TV ad, for example, because consumers are making a choice to view — and engage in — the ad. We'll definitely see more of it in 2012.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/nikes-ar-running-campaign-2011-12

 

Smart Adidas shoes let you mimic your favorite athlete

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

A new “intelligent” soccer cleat from Adidas promises to allow you to compare your performance with the game’s greatest players.

The innovative shoes, which contain an embedded chip that records and analyzes a player’s performance, have already been worn by star footballer Lionel Messi. The technology allows the German sporting goods giant to show you what you did and how it compares to previous efforts, friends and world-class players.

(No word on how the shoes will help you get over the bout of depression you’ll face with that last one.)

The cleats are the product of two years of research and development, Adidas says, and are yet another attempt to gain a competitive edge over American rival Nike, which counts star soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo among its stable of top-flight athletes, has a similar product in its Nike Plus platform and whose gains in the sport have been sizeable, at Adidas’ expense.

The smart shoe is a digitized version of the company’s f50 adizero, introduced in 2010 as the lightest cleat on the market, at just 165 grams. Now, it carries an eight-gram chip slipped beneath the sole that wirelessly transmits data, including maximum speed, distance covered.

The company is marketing them as the “football boot with a brain.”

The footwear runs on a modified version of Adidas’ miCoach platform, which was first introduced in 2006 for runners. Soccer, which involves 360-degree movement that’s more complicated than simple forward progress, represents the next step for the technology.

Unsurprisingly, the company says it’s investigating similar applications for basketball, tennis and American football in the first half of next year.

The shoes will go on sale in Europe, Asia and Latin America on Nov. 15 for 245 euros, or about $338. The U.S. receives them Dec. 1.

Source: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/smart-adidas-shoes-let-you-mimic-your-favorite-athlete/20309

 

Nike’s ‘Lunar Runs’ Encourage Chinese to Run at Night

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Nike has rolled out a new ad campaign in China that  calls on people to run, even at night. Nikes effort to challenge Chinese, especially from big cities, to put on running shoes is reinforced with a new web video featuring runners who talk about why they run. A highlight of the video is the story of Salad, a stressed-out 25-year-old office worker who lives in noisy Shanghai and decides to run at night.  

The video asks people to submit their own reasons, says Ad Age. Runners submitted their stories to Nike’s microblog account on the Sina Weibo platform, and the AKQA, the agency behind the campaign created a collection of professional videos based on the best entries.

The idea behind the campaign is to show running not as a painful and poor initiative but to demonstrate its cheerful and dynamical nature.

“We wanted to make sure it wasn’t necessarily Nike telling [consumers] why running is good, so the whole entry point with the communication is really leveraging stories of the few runners who are out there,” said Johan Vakidis, exec creative director at AKQA in Shanghai.

As part of the campaign, Nike hosted ‘Lunar Runs’ in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan. The nighttime events featured fitness instructors, live music and a few celebrities, to remind college students and young professionals that running is a fun activity that can be done at night, after classes or work. The event also promotes Nike’s Lunar Glide running shoe. The ‘Lunar Glide’ campaign also goes on in the USA calling on Americans to ‘never stop running’. The maximalistic slogan coincides with another Nike’s current campaign ‘Basketball never stops’.

The campaign seems to raise interest in running among young Nike’s audience as Nike engaged with more than 35,000 potential runners during its Lunar Runs and during a four-day Festival of Sports event in Shanghai.

Source: http://popsop.com/50679