Christien Louviere

I recently made a post about Nike understanding what athletes are about. The Cinderella commercial I referenced was about doing whatever, whenever to get where you want to go. The newest commercial is about their Nike SPARQ (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness) training program. To most athletes, SPARQ is nothing new. It is a training program used to condition athletes for their particular sport. I’ve seen this training program administered by people such as Velocity from early high school through the professional level. Nike has rebranded this program SPARQ and is showing it the public. Yes, the commercials are very cool. The one most will remember is the long version with Saul Williams singing “List of Demands” in the background.

Nike’s brand is just better. If you’re serious about training, then you will head over to their website. The site doesn’t just show off professional athletes’ ratings. It lists individuals you’ve never heard of playing high school football, soccer, baseball, etc…male and female…can find their training results online comparing it to others around the country. If you played high school anything, think about how valuable that knowledge would’ve been then. The top competitors always assume someone else is trying to work harder than them at any moment, so they push. This site can give you even more “juice” to perform better. To get on this list, look at Nike’s scheduled list of events. All you have to do is find the scheduled events, show up and they will test you. Nike offers training videos to prepare or train on your own. Of course, you can even buy SPARQ branded equipment; but, the real value for Nike is in everything but the merchandise. They’ve created a massive amount of conversation from 90 seconds of commercials and a top-notch user interface

Many would call this viral marketing, but as my friend, Darren Herman, has said, “They are creating a conversation with the consumers.” This is what it takes today to be successful in business. The brand doesn’t control the consumers and the consumers don’t control the brands. If either of these is too off-tilt, something will give. Brand communication today is about emerging media. A main component of all emerging media is ongoing conversation.

“My better is better than your better. Thank you very much for coming.”

My Better is Better Than Your Better