Archive for the "Nike" Category

Todd Skidmore pulled out the win with his design.  Heather and I, independent of each other, chose his design as the best.  The contest was close between four participants, but I liked that Todd made the laces hot pink.  Hot pink in the laces will allow me to replace them with black after the wedding.  Rolling to the gym with too much hot pink might look a little funny on me.

While I did get some cool new kicks out of the contest for my wedding, I was interested to see the viral effects of the contest.  Overall, I was very pleased with the results.  The contest ran from March 9th to March 31st.  Here are some stats from the contest:

-Over 1,500 hits to my site
-Almost 1,000 unique visits
-Over 20 user-generated submissions
-Trackbacks to multiple shoe blogs
-Twitter helped push my blog up to readers in Beaverton, OR (Nike HQ)

Todd Skidmore OFFDAMKT

I learned a great deal about how users interact online.  However, there are several things that I would have done differently next time.

1) Make it easier to submit designs.  The process did cause more problems than I expected.  It would’ve been easier to have the users email their designs to me.
2) I wish more public commentary on the design had ensued.  I was disappointed with this aspect of the contest.
3) Get more people that bleed Nike to participate.

Thanks so much to everyone that participated in any form! If you tweeted the post, created an entry or simply left a comment about what you liked, I really appreciate you helping me have fun on my big day!  It’s going to be fun!

The response to my Nike Shox Wedding Contest and your chance to win $50 has been pretty impressive so far.

The Back-story…

About 6 months ago while discussing wedding plans with my fiancée, I tried to convince her that my groomsmen and I should be able to wear customized Nike Shox as our shoes for the wedding.  Somewhat of a debate ensued.

“It will look horrible!” she playfully exclaimed.
“Jerry Seinfeld did it!” I anxiously responded.
“You’re not him!” she responded as if she were my mother.
“I’ll make sure all the Shox match the vests.”
“No, it the worst idea ever!” she exclaimed in her customary, enthusiastic and playful 5-year old like pitch.

At that point, I proceeded to work on her friends, thinking that she might seriously consider it if it had some strong XX chromosome backing.  Outside of one that works for an ad agency, the idea never picked up steam; but I did manage to help the girls burn off lots of calories through laughing.

Fast Forward…

Two weekends ago, my fiancée informed me that she had spent $300 on her wedding shoes.

blue-manolos

And of course, being made up of XX chromosomes, she can’t help but brag about the “deal” she received, especially since the deal is related to shoes.   This price phenomenon is one of those female conversation starters that I’ve never quite figured out, and I consider my female knowledge slightly above average.  Anyway, she saved some $600 on the “Something Blue” Manolo Blahniks that Carrie Bradshaw wears in the Sex and the City Movie.  If I was a girl, I would have jumped up, hugged her, hit her with a pillow, kissed her and then started to…well, you know all that stuff that Cinemax says that women do when men aren’t around.  Unfortunately for both of us, the conversation took more of a logical approach.

“Wait! You get to wear blue shoes with your white (ivory) dress, but I can’t wear my NikeID Shox?” I asked with sarcastic inquiry.
“But, baby,” she said pleadingly.  “They’ll look terrible; and besides, no one will be able to see my shoes,” she said hesitantly as if she knew what my next move was.
“Then, whyyyyyy are we spending $300 on shoes that no one will see?” I responded in typical guy fashion I assume.
I then heard a voice from above whisper to me, “Well played sir.”

I’m not really sure what happened next because I think I mentally blacked out from my strategically placed response; but when I regained consciousness she was telling me about something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.  The part about blue sounded made-up to me, but I didn’t care because she informed me that if I wanted to wear Nike Shox to the reception only then I could do so.  Victory!!  A series of questions ensued with the only stipulation being that she gets the final say-so.

The Result

After I declared victory, I told her that I would put my social media skills to the test to help choose the colors of my new shoes; thus, we now we have the Nike Shox Wedding Contest.   The goals of the contest are simply to illustrate how the various aspects of social media can be used to create a successful marketing campaign, show how easy it can be to create personal involvement in a brand movement, get people to use their creative talents and for me (and the groomsmen) to be comfortable on my wedding day.

Within 24 hours, I had hits on my site from over 10 countries and a few from Nike’s corporate headquarters.  The contest has a little over 2 weeks to go and there have already been 16 submissions.  So far, I like what I see, but I’d like to see some more questions to make the shoes as personal as possible.   I can’t wait to see what other submissions come forth.

Fine Print: Nike is not officially involved with this contest other than they’ve done their part to keep me as a customer for throughout my entire athletic career.  My fiancee is just simply awesome for letting me do this.

If you read my blog, then you know I’m a big fan of the Nike brand and their commercials.  They’ve been there with me through all my days as an athlete in soccer, basketball and football.  At all levels whether it was all-star teams or the powerhouse that is LSU football, I more often than not chose Nike gear.  I figured they ought to be with me on one of the most important days of my life too.

During my wedding reception (5.9.2009), I will need that extra confidence and bounce to make sure I can make it to each food station with ease as they unveil new dishes throughout the night, meet n’ greet my guests with grace and, more importantly, glide with elegance and style on the dance floor.  I will only be able to perform at my maximum in a set of Nike Shox.  Using this reasoning and my superb litigation skills, I convinced my fiancee to let me wear a pair of Nike Shox during the wedding reception!!

The best part: I’ve chosen the shoe, but YOU get to choose the style and have a chance to win $50!!!  It’s quite simple to compete and win, so here are the rules:

1)    Go to NIKEiD and design a pair of Nike Shox for me to wear at the wedding reception.

2)    The model has to be a running shoe, which are the “Turbo+ iD,” “Experience+ iD,” “ NZ iD” or the “Turbo+ VI iD.”

3)    Save the design to your Nike profile (aka “myLocker”), use the “share” feature at the bottom right to copy the hyperlink to the design and then comment on this post with your design and hyperlink for all to see.

4)    The winner, chosen by us, will receive a $50 Nike gift card!

5)    Pictures of the shoes in action will be posted upon return from the honeymoon.

You can read the backstory on this contest here.

clouvioffdamkt1

Considerations…

1)    My groomsmen and ring bearer will have the option to wear these shoes as well, so your design could be on eight pairs of feet!!

2)    Feel free to comment on the blog with questions or check here regarding anything about the wedding so you can better tailor your design. e.g. What are your colors?

3)    Feel free to email me the wallpaper download, so I can put a copy in my Flickr Stream.

4)    This is a subjective contest, so if you like someone’s design, please leave a comment saying so.  It may influence the results.  Also, my wonderful fiancée gets the final say-so.

5)    Even if you’re not competing, pass along the link to this blog.  Increased competition yields better results.  That’s what Nike and I are all about.

6)    Feel free to ask me any questions about the NIKEiD site or this contest.  Contest ends when my bachelor party begins at Midnight EST on  April 1, 2009!!

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

My Better is Better Than Your Better

I was a huge Michael Jordan fan when I was young. I used to try, notice the italics, to imitate him as a kid. I watched the training videos, read the Bios and scraped together what I could on the young Internet. Jordan and Nike have always put together wonderful commercials. They have been consistent in understanding the amateur athlete and showing that they understand via their various branding initiatives. Phil Knight started making running shoes on the back of a pickup truck, and then he gave universities (see Oregon) free stuff if they used it in public and somehow he managed to maintain that image with the largest sports clothier in the world.

Commercials like this give me chills…because whether you’re playing now, have played or are going to play…we all compete. Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets make an appearance. Think the NBA loves this guy? Amazing fundamentally, off-the-radar in a star-studded NBA West, in a Cinderella town…potential to be Legendary. Recognize some of the others…Boise State and Appalachian State playing late.