Nike 10K Run

Nike’s done it again with another awesome campaign. The worldwide 10k run in my opinion is a huge success.

Basically, this campaign is a global event whereby the whole world (selected countries) run 10k together for various causes. One of which was WWF which i pledged my cause to. The purpose of the campaign was to promote the use of their new Nike sport band and iPod sport kit.

Why do i think it’s a successful campaign? Let me tell you from a runner’s experience during the run. The first 1km was jam packed at a slow pace and ppl actually started walking after the first 1k. This indicates that these ppl aren’t serious runners.

Now the only brand that can attract non-regular runners to run 10k would be Nike. The power of this consumer brand itself is enough to attract ppl to take part in this event.It really shows that the people it attracted went beyond their target audience!

In addition, the usual mediums of posters smartly designed with thousands of people waiting to start the run is pretty straight forward.

The use of digital media is really impressive. You can check out the site here. With a progressive chart to teach you how to train yourself for the run to partner details to providing music, Nike has pretty much covered everything a site can do to help runners. (Of course while promoting how their products can help you, but it’s Nike, who wouldn’t want 1?)

Using social media, there was a facebook group and the numbers RSVPing to the event was really impressive. I’m not one to promote setting up a facebook group and leave it hanging, but i guess the brand had enough draw and the campaign enough attention that using this medium was really effective.

Some of their videos involving the run was also featured on Youtube and they had interviews with celebs as well to help propel the event forward.

Wondering if they could have done more here…. Such a campaign was already pretty viral, could it have been fueled more? Perhaps a wiki that can help different age groups and different genders train? And that it can be edited by ppl?

Or how about setting up a blog to showcase the day to day trainings of a particular runner? ( The run today had more females than males!!) I would’ve have loved to see a sports 2.0 in action here…

The best part is the PR involved in this. Already I’ve seen this on the news and how the interview with a minsiter was happily encouraging the run, promoting Singapore to be a sports hub. It would seem Nike has propeled Singapore one step further after our winning at the Olympics. I can forsee more coverage being churrned out if Nike decides to showcase how the run has helped the various causes it was trying to promote.

So there you go, Nike does it again!

Do you think it’s a good campaign? Could they have done better with the use of social media to further fuel the viral aspect of the campaign? Share with me!!

How to handle a crisis with social media communications badly

I know the title sounds harsh but i just get really annoyed that Maple Leaf is handling its current crisis in such a poor manner, from a communications angle.

So for those who have no idea what’s going on, here’s the break down…

Maple Leaf is an American JR Canadian Company who deals with processed meat. Recently, it was discovered that a link has been determined between a strain of Listeria bacteria found at one of the company’s plants outside of Toronto, and the strain of Listeria that has caused illness and loss of lives.

It’s a standard crisis and the company has been affected by a 10% drop in share price from $11 to $8.8 (close to 50% since June…) The company has made several sound decisions:

1) They have recalled all products from that a particular plant. This has been an estimated cost of $20 million. The brand value decrease, needless to say, is going to be hit even harder…

2) They are currently working with the health authorities to rectify the issue.

They’re also facing these consequences:

1) 15 deaths in total followed by lawsuits coming in hard and fast

2) Loss of further sales

3) Potential loss of business partners

So this is really just the big picture of it with the main issues highlighted out… While their traditional press release has been impressive and up to date, I’m really annoyed with the way they handled the digital media part of it.

Here’s what they have done…

1) They set up a “Dark Site” posting an apology and a pledge of sincere reform.

2) Included are links to a YouTube video by Michael McCain, CEO, for an apology video. (Shown below)

3)In addition, there is an aggregated press release you can follow here to put into your Google Reader.

Number one big mistake i found was that by setting up a dark site in times of a crisis is not cool. Although digital media is the fastest way to reach out to the concerned public who are concerned about this doesn’t mean that it was the right medium to use.

Having little interaction on the social media scene with users and stakeholders, setting up a “dark site” in times of a crisis wrong. You cant expect the stakeholders looking at your site to be able to respond with little or no understanding of your current plight because of the lack of interaction. I wouldn’t be surprised if i’m the only one to have been pissed off by this. I talked about this in my post on Crisis management: Social media the way to go?

Secondly, was McCain the right guy to use for the video? I mean you’re talking about a product which has caused deaths…. The YouTube video seemed scripted to me, with little emotion to it other than falling share prices being on top of his mind… Could a better spokesperson have been used?

But while these critics seem a little harsh, its just that companies shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon just because the medium is the “cool” thing to use right now. Traditional approaches have their classic touch of “tried and tested” track record.

The only good thing is the RSS feed for the press releases to keep you up to date about the current event. This will probably blow over within the next month, but I do hope the company recovers its relationship with its stakeholders, built back its brand equity and confidence in investors.

For now, its a time where the company has to take the punches hard and fast before they can come through the storm.

What do you think the company should have done better? Was their use of a “dark site” appropriate? Share your thoughts!!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!!

Yes! It’s that time of the week again and congratz for making it past the worst day of the week.

Anyhows, after the Olympics, I just had to end of my TOP marketing list with who i tot was the best….

And the award for outstanding TOP marketing campaign for the Olympics goes to…. MacDonald!

Excellent use of social and digital media and a good leverage of the Olympcis to increase brand awarness through all mediums possible whilst mantaing the brand essence of the fast food company, Macs got my vote!

And i wanted to share a list of what i tot were some of the toking points of the Olympics, but Yahoo! beat me to it, lol… so you can read it here.

Yes and while the Americans love their poster boy Phelps, I think team Singapore didn’t do too badly with Tao Li and the Table Tennis gals. (WHat the heck are the guys doing?) And while the continous debate of weather this medal should be counted because of their PR status and not being true bred Singaporeans, I think it really doesn’t matter.

Cut the narrow mindeness and think about it, our heritage comes from foreign lands anyways, this concept isn’t new, so live with it and be happy about it.

So that’s about it on MY closing for the Olympics and JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!

Coca-Cola and the Olympics

With the closing of the Olympics today, I tot it was apt that i write about the last TOP and their marketing efforts. I’ve saved the best brand for the last and its Coca-Cola! (or Coke for short)

Coke is the exclusive non-alcoholic beverage for the Olympics. Having supported the Olympics in Amsterdam since 1928, they’ve been with the games all the way and became the official non-alcoholic beverage in 1986.

This is my favourite drink (Goes best with whiskey) and brand of all time. The brand equity is always number 1 and what they have done for this year’s Olympics has been nothing short of but remarkable.

What I like about Coke is how it ties sports with its brand. While most brands play on the passion of the fans or the excitement of the games, Coke has taken a step back and simply uses its feel good brand to leverage on the optimism that sports brings about.

I quote from this article about Coke’s marketing efforts,

“You will rarely see the Coca-Cola brand around the world in work which shows a lot of athletes running around,” he said. “The tonality of the brand is happy; the tonality of the brand is sharing optimism. There is no competition. The idea is how we can bring the world together in a positive way.”

So with data from market research gathered over the 2004 summer games and 2006 winter games, what’re some of the marketing efforts that Coke has done?

Going with their “Live Olympics” campaign, here’re some of their efforts

1) Like all brands mentioned in the TOP, Coke has an exhibition hall (ok, a 13,000 sq foot center) showcasing its history with the Olympics and their various CSR efforts. This site is expected to attract more than a quarter of a million visitors a day. You can read more about it here.

2) Social media efforts include “Design the world a coke” campaign. It’s basically designing a coke bottle and posting it on your social networking site to display your creative works.

I’m having really mixed responses to this campaign. I agree with Jane who argued that the campaign’s execution was poor. There was no extrinsic motivation for users to go design the bottle and spread the “love” of Coke around. While i realize that Coke’s campaign seems to be in line with harmony and optimism, it seemed by doing mash ups with Yao ming’s bottle was pretty generalized.

Coke as usual has made an impact at the Olympics. While it might already be dominating China, the Olympics was a great opportunity to leverage on its global brand name and reinforce it in the China market.

Who’s to argue, they’ve already achieved Marketing Gold for this year’s Olympics according to this article here. I love this OP Index and look forward to the results after the Games.

While its easy to argue that Coke could have done more, i think a brand of its stature doesn’t really have to do much. Once again, I’m in awe of Coke and the simple message that its brand brings across this Olympics.

GE and the Olympics

Moving on to the 2nd last TOP on the list of the TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we have GE!!

GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services that are integral to a successful Games. From providing power, lighting, security and modular space solutions at Olympic venues to supplying ultrasound and MRI equipment to help doctors treat athletes, GE works closely with the Organising Committees, local municipalities and other Olympic Partners to understand their needs and then deliver solutions that only GE can. NBC Universal, a division of GE, is the exclusive US media partner of the Games. The GE and NBC Universal partnerships extend through 2012.

Now what kind of marketing efforts would a company like GE have?

1)They have a green theme of “Ecomagination” for a marketing campaign. Basically showcasing all their green initiatives to reduce the carbon emission of various places. By using their technology on the Bird’s nest and the water cube, GE has solidified its position in China through these examples and earned a neat 600 Million dollar revenue. They plan to further push their green initiatives during the Shanghai world expo and the Guangzhou Asian games.

2) They launched various commercials to be part of the “green Olympics” initiative set by Beijing. Here’s the link for the ads.

3) They’ve also chosen an interesting medium to market their message. They have interactive ads on 1000 taxis in Beijing being displayed on a small screen in the cab for passengers. You can read more about it here.

4) As mentioned earlier, NBC, part of the GE umbrella are the exclusive US media partner. This Olympics marks the transition of NBC shifting their video coverage to online. Whats more, there’re showcasing thousands of hours of film previously not shown in games. This is to cater to the niche groups who are more interested in certain sports. There’s the long tail theory working for u!

That seems to be about GE’s efforts for the Olympics. You can check out their homepage for more details.

Now, since they’ve committed themselves to reducing the carbon emission and going on a green theme (Certainly not a case of green washing), wouldn’t it be great if they could involve the ppl as well?

I’m thinking Facebook groups to encourage greener initiatives. Wikis to generate more green solutions.They have a healthcare blog, but what about one for the “ecomagination”? I’m guessing social media here might not be a huge consideraton cause its gonna be a lot of B2B marcomms going on. However, if their intiative can spur ppl on to make the change, then it might make demnad greater!

So while i admire their green intiative, interesting ads and mediums to push these ads, it would have been nice to invovle the ppl who ultimately use their service.

Panasonic and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics marketing efforts, we’re moving on to Panasonic!

Under the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd, Panasonic is the exclusive TV/audio/video TOP and started being a TOP since 1987.

Before we look at some of their marketing efforts, I found this insightful article whereby the use of social media for the various brands have been highlighted. It’s a good read, do take a look.

So what’re some of their marketing efforts?

1) Having a theme of “Sharing the passion”, they have a nice flash page on their website which showcases their involvement in the Olympics for the past 20 years.

What’s interesting is that they have thrown in what they call ‘digital journalists’ in the ‘Beijing Diary’, where these journalists use their products to experience and capture the Olympics. There’re various video reports which you can check out in the site as well.

Also with a tinge of social media, these journalists have blogs as well! Nothing much written in them but interesting to read nevertheless.

Panasonic is also promoting the country’s various top day and night tourists spots, which is a really great way to go, following Visa’s example.

Lastly, part of the site has a short 60 sec movie clip which you can watch here.

2) Within China, where brands have already spent 6 billion dollars maxing out their sponsorship to increase their brand reach in the most sought after country this year, Panasonic also has a small micro site which allows users to display photos of users on it. It’s in Chinese so I wouldn’t really attempt to explain more. You can check it out here.

3) Like all brands, they have a huge booth set up near the “Bird’s Nest”. Impressively, Panasonic TVs are being used by other brands as well in these booths. You can read more about the mishaps of organizing the logistics on site, man i hate it when those hic-cups happen.

So there you have it, Panasonic’s efforts have been above what i’ve expected. 2 more TOPs to go!!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!

Yup, its that time of the week again. I just realzied I have 3 TOP Olympics left to cover, and i’ve enjoyed looking at the various efforts made by the TOP.

Today, I attended my first lesson on Promotions marketing communications. Marketing communications or Marcomm for short is divided into 6 aspects and one of them is PR.

Now, I’ve been contemplating long and hard and I’m still undecided as to which path i wanna take. I love both comms and marketing (Yeah, the fact that they have no exams is a real sweet deal). But seriously, while other business majors are sciences, Marketing and comms are an art. Its never perfect, the ROI is one hell of a bitch to justify and yet, its gratifying work to do even though we get crappy starting pays at entree level and long hours, lol….

So here’s my dilemma, which should i go for? I would not like to start in house (kk, if P&G comes knocking or some other big firm, I dun think I can turn it away), I would like to start at an agency. Like Priscilla always tells me, agencies give bigger exposure! So while I might be number crunching or media clipping ( which seems to a rite of passage into the club), I know account handling’s gonna give me a good experience, which only makes practicing the art better.

So where do i head to? PR or marketing? Is Marketing part of PR or is PR part of marketing? I dun even wanna think of the in house budget cause I’m guessing marketing gets way more, but which should a fresh grad look for?

So if you’re already practising one of the arts, why do u do what u do? And if u faced a choice like me, which did you take in the end and why?

Singapore Government discusses new media

After watching PM Lee’s national day rally on TV a while back, I’m really impressed with the way the Singapore government has adopted the use of new media. Embarrassingly, as a Singaporean, I hadn’t realized these efforts made.

He started by showcasing examples of the current US elections between McCain and Obama and the use of social media, then showed how Korea’s new media influenced its decision against its president’s beef decision and the wild rumors of mad cow disease. Malaysia’s political scene being battled online was also illustrated as an example.

Topics hot on the reach homepage of the S’pore government was also covered by the PM and shows that these topics being mentioned aren’t just put for show. He also admitted that while the past communications was done by pushing out information, the new 2 way interaction of web2.0 is being utilized and studied by the government.

This is truly wonderful news to me or as a undergrad who’s deciding on a future btw marketing and PR, the fact that the government is embracing this new form of media rather than being restrictive about, it is a great way forward for Singapore and the region.

While this is a short post, I’m just really gald our Singapore government is accepting and understanding the freedom this new media brings about. I can’t wait to see what reccomendations will be made in the future for the restrictions of the use of social and digital media. I know we wouldn’t end up like China’s great firewall, but i’m glad to see that we’re moving one step forward! Singapore Government pave the way!!

Plurk timeline

Plurk.com

Omega and the Olympics

Moving down the list of TOP Olympics, we have Omega of The Swatch Group Ltd. Omega is the official Time piece (for example, watches, clocks and official countdown clocks), timing systems/services, and electronic timing, scoring and scoreboard systems and services for the games.

So as the offical timekeeper for the games, what are some of their marketing efforts?

1) From online mediums, they have this flash animation scroll thingy which traces the history of Omega and China. Further, it also traces bits and pieces of the Olympic history.

While slightly cliche, it does bring some interesting facts from the past to today’s generation who are too engrossed with Michael Phelp’s 8th gold medal. Things like the “Flying Housewife” and the “Czech Locomotive” are great stuff to know from the past century.

You’ll probably see some of these in the shops selling Omega watches as well being displayed…

Sadly, this site is solely one-sided with little interaction or use of social media…. Would be great if they could have included other great moments in the Games voted by the ppl, which Omega was there to capture the winning timings…

2) What’s a brand without an ambassador? You can check out the list of ambassadors they have here, heck, they’ve been sponsoring Phelp’s since 2004, good shot at that one considering how his market value is going up.

Even James Bond is one of ‘em, lol….

3) Lastly, like most brands in the Olympic Green, they have a pavilion built which showcases their watches and other neat stuff. Read more about it here.

It’s a pretty normal marketing campaign considering the amount pumped in but i guess they should know what they’re doing since they’ve been doing it since 1932.

Would like to see a heavier usage of social media considering the history they have with the games and how they could connect with the people then.

Another thing I would like to share is how Olympics can help a country as a brand and you can read more about that from this article here. What’s most important i think in an Olympic sponsorship is that it not only helps a brand being a TOP, the brand must also help the country. This would allow the brand to have a stronger association wit that particular year’s games and build its brand presence in the host country.