Nike has always been well known for creating stunning visual homages for their iconic athlete endorsers. In recent memory there is none bigger than the tribute to LeBron James when he was drafted by, and started playing for, his hometown team – the Cleveland Cavaliers. After this week’s ‘Decision‘ to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and form the new ‘Big Three’ (the term originally coined by my beloved Celtics in the Bird/Parish/McHale era), the city of Cleveland decided it had had enough with Nike’s larger than life building wrap and started the process of removing all traces of King James from it’s public edifices. Athletes come and go – some have more impact than others. LeBron was a beacon of hope to the economically distressed Rust Belt. I wonder if he’ll need ‘Witness Protection’ when he returns twice a year to play his former team.
Sporting events are one of the largest branding opportunities around. There is not a more popular sport in the world outside of soccer – it’s truly a global game with an unparalleled fan base. The World Cup takes that to a whole new level. The brand that is leaving the competition in the dust is not even an official Fifa Partner or World Cup Sponsor, but a company that has winning in it’s very DNA – Nike. Their campaign, Write The Future, is a prime example of ‘ambush marketing’. Not an official sponsor, Nike turned to the web for initial distribution of their 3 minute, highly produced spot featuring some of the best ‘Footballers’ in the world. Greeted with overwhelming praise, this long form advertisement has been deemed by Trevor Edwards (Vice President, Global Brand & Category Management) as “one of the best we’ve ever done.” (courtesy, OregonLive). The traffic would agree, with the spot having just surpassed 15M views in only two short weeks. Even Nike CEO, Mark Parker, gave high praise to the campaign:
“Our ‘Write the Future’ football campaign is the most complete, innovative and creative project we’ve ever done, and we’ve got more excitement on the ground than anybody else in the game.” (courtesy, MediaPost)
No doubt that Landon Donovan helped extend the fictional narrative into a literal embodiment of the ad with yesterday’s heroic goal in the 91st minute sending the U.S.A. into the knockout round in this year’s Cup.
The campaign goes far beyond the initial video. As you can see from the graphic above, Nike has invited the fans into the experience – giving them the opportunity to ‘Write The Future’ through social means with the chance to have their headline displayed on one of Johannesburg’s largest skyscrapers (100 will be displayed each night). What I love about this is that it empowers the fan to be an active part of the campaign and involves them in a meaningful way (very similar to the way we {Intel} included everyday people in our Sponsors of Tomorrow Campaign last year). This is the human face of advertising. People naturally want to be included in the celebration. They want to be heard, and they want a participatory voice in their favorite events and with brands they are passionate about. Hat tip Nike – you’ve created an amazing campaign and you’ve invited your biggest advocates, your customers, to help Write The Future.
Unbelievable Web traffic today around the World Cup match between the U.S. and Algeria. Personally, I was sitting in our company cafeteria with about 400 of my closest Intel friends watching the dramatic conclusion to the game – which was capped off with a stunning goal by Landon Donovan in the 91st minute. Amazing. The whole room erupted and I think more than a few laptops and smartphones hit the floor in all the excitement. I immediately hit Facebook and Twitter with the excited exclamation of GOOOOAAALLLL!!! which was commented upon almost instantaneously by my friends on the social graph. I wasn’t the only one. According to Mashable, who’s staff was watching the net traffic on Akamai’s Net Usage Index, traffic spiked tremendously soon after Donovan put the ball in the back of the net:
“In the minutes following Landon Donovan’s game winning goal in the 91st minute of action (which sent the U.S. to the round of 16), traffic spiked to 11.2 million visitors per minute, which moves the event past the 2008 presidential election as the second highest traffic spike of all-time.”
Even their Editor in Chief, Adam Ostrow, called the impact on the social web with this tweet:
“that goal is so taking down Twitter …”
Pretty impressive…and you can see from the chart below, the English have got nothin’ on us.
Arguably, the 2010 World Cup will be the most watched sporting event in history. What’s unique about this edition of the largest futbol tournament in the world is how it will be activated on the social web. Try Google’ng ‘World Cup 2010 Social Media‘. Boom – NINETY EIGHT MILLION results.
I didn’t think that was possible. This social revolution is not just limited to blogs, message boards, and the random video posted to YouTube. Quite the contrary – the depth and breadth of how people are sharing – Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Live Streaming – is astounding. Fifa is getting in on the action, with the latest post on their official Twitter page exclaiming:
“People are singing on the streets, fireworks are being set off – a great day for football and South Africa #worldcup”
Not only that, we’re in the year of Mobile. As such, we can expect people to be strolling down the street, driving, or in their next boring staff meeting staring down at their iPhone to see if Wayne Rooney, Landon Donovan, or Ronaldo have placed the ball in the back of the net with a strike from mid-field.
In short, social media has changed how the world watches the most popular sport on the planet. How will you be tracking your favorite team and players throughout the next month? I’m sure I’ll send a tweet or two with the emphatic #Gooooaaaaal!
I’m a HUGE NBA fan… and even bigger when my beloved Boston Celtics are involved this late into the post season. I take every opportunity to poke my friend and social sparring partner, Michael Brito, who moved on from Intel (Boo!) and joined Edelman not long ago. He’s also an unabashed Laker fan so the poking is warranted. We’ve been going back and forth over Twitter over the last couple of weeks as our favorite teams navigate their way through the playoffs. Had I known about Nike Basketball’s Post Season Twitter page, I would have channeled my energy there in an effort to disparage more Laker fans in one fell swoop! Nice execution – bringing people’s passions for sport to a socially relevant medium. Hats of to Stamen Design – I worked with them a number of years ago for our Digg Arc visualization – glad they are continuing to innovate.
We’ve been out of the mix in terms of being an advertiser in the Super Bowl for more than a decade (12 years to be precise). This past Sunday, we changed that in a big way – debuting two new ads (Lunch Room and Generations) during the game and again in the post-game show (which we were also the primary sponsor of). Not only did we have an exciting game to watch, but as an Intel employee it gave me a great sense of pride to see our name on such a grand sporting stage. The team that I work with did a great job of pulling all of this together – we’ve all been working very hard to make this happen and to see it come off without a hitch was fantastic. If you haven’t seen our newest spot, featuring Jeffrey the Robot, I’ve embedded it below. We also spent a great deal of time promoting through the social graph, as ComputerWorld notes in an article released Monday.
Social Networking is, as Charlene Li says ‘Like Air‘ – ubiquitous and everywhere. We are in a culture where every demographic on the planet is involved in some capacity or another. Some of the most visible? Athletes – especially professional athletes. Social Media is a way for the athlete to share a little bit of their ‘off court’ or ‘off field’ persona with those that support them most – their fans. From a fan’s perspective, this is an amazing peek into the everyday lives of their sports heroes. Is it always good for the athlete? No.
Then, comes the flip side. Using social media to make a complete mockery of themselves. Case in point… this week, Portland’s own Greg Oden. There are multiple incidents that are embarrassing for athletes that have a very public persona – and some of the ramifications are career threatening, in the case of Gilbert Arenas. In many cases, it is simply kids making a mistake that is extraordinarily public (Brandon Jennings on Twitter and Video). Remember, these athletes are often times not even of drinking age but making millions of dollars…with plenty of free time on their hands. You know what they say about idle hands…
From my perspective, the moral here for professional athletes to take care with their use of Social Media. You have an incredible opportunity to extend your influence for good and to give the people that ultimately pay your salary (the fans) the ability to take a peek into your ‘off field’ persona. Be careful of what you ‘Tweet’ – it could come back to bite you…
There is a 3 week span in July each year where I am virtually worthless at night. I find myself spending massive amounts of time on my couch – remote in hand, watching 180 of the fittest athletes on earth climbing mountains on two wheels, racing through the countryside faster than the average commute, and literally wrestling each other to the finish line in an all out pedal mashing sprint. This year, Versus has nearly perfected their online presence for their coverage of The Tour de France. They offer several levels of quality – from low quality via the free selection to a full HD experience, on demand, with their paid season pass.
Versus brings a very strong social element to the site – pulling in the Twitter feeds of Lance Armstrong, Team SlipStream, and the official TDF tweet stream. Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Bob Roll and others on the broadcasting team each contribute semi-regular blogs during the 3 weeks the tour rolls through France. Additionally, there is an extremely active communitycontinously interacting on the message boards – debating the likes of who is the odds on favorite to win the individual stages, sharing photos from the action, and kibutzing the team dynamics of Team Astana.
While I still spend hours on my couch each night watching these men on wheels fly through French countryside, I find that a quick peek (ok, sometimes it’s a bit longer than that if the stage is exciting) on Versus’ site makes for a great viewing experience as I kick off my work day…
Ok – admittedly, I am just ramping back up in the digital universe after being on holidays for the last two weeks. I did find this as an appropos way to re-enter the V/Speak blog and add a little humor to the new week. Enjoy.
It’s Finals time. Not in the NBA – in Fantasy Basketball. I’m not in them (no surprise there – I never seem to be, despite my best efforts) but that doesn’t stop me from following them ardently. What is interesting this year in the NBA is the rapid adoption of Twitter by some top names in the league. Shaq, Baron Davis, and Paul Pierce. My favorite – Charlie Villenueva. He’s probably one of the most prolific NBA players on Twitter…with his most publicized ’tweet‘ coming at halftime of a recent game against the Celtics.
What I find intriguing about this is that it gives unprecedented access to our sports heroes. Shaq and Paul Pierce routinely give out tickets to games via the micro-blogging service. With Shaq, it’s the first person to find him in the NBA city he’s playing in and touching him after he tweets. He recently visited my hometown, Portland, and put the tweet out for tickets against the Trail Blazers. It took 4 minutes for someone to find him and win the tickets. His response to his followers? “100 people n the prtland area just came for tickets wow portland twitterers r niiiiiice“…
I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out my current opponent, who is not ashamed of using the power of Twitter to gain an edge in his matchup. Fab Fish – this one’s for you…. way to game the system.
Somone has gone to a lot of work to find and verify accuracy of sports figures on Twitter, which they list in a spreadsheet for the public to see. Who will you follow?
Arguably, the 2010 World Cup will be the most watched sporting event in history. What’s unique about this edition of the largest futbol tournament in the world is how it will be activated on the social web. Try Google’ng ‘
Social Networking is, as Charlene Li says ‘
