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Archive for the 'social media' Category

Aug

ChalkBot remembers Mom

By Kirk 0 Comments

Categories: cause marketing, event marketing, health care, interactive marketing, promotion and social media

Nike’s Chalkbot may be the perfect convergence of technology, social media, and cause marketing.

Essentially a pneumatic chalk-paint sprayer driven by a computer, ChalkBot takes messages from around the world via text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and the LiveSTRONG web site, and sprays them in yellow on the roads of the Tour de France during the event.

According to The Inspiration Room blog, the system includes a text-message interface, web-based queue and approval system for tour officials, onboard machine and nozzle control, spray mechanism, camera and GPS capture system, and Twitter integration. (See how it works below.)

The messages generally support the fight against cancer, encourage survivors, and memorialize loved ones. On the ChalkBot landing page are sample messages submitted by others and a Google map indicating their points of origination.

I gave it a try and submitted a message in memory of my mom who died of cancer in 2000.

On July 19, the Tour entered the Pyrenees during Stage 14. Christophe Riblon, a Fenchman, escaped early on the road between Revel and Ax 3 Domaines and held off the charge of the peloton to win the day. The main contenders, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, played cat-and-mouse games with each other during the stage’s two difficult climbs. Schleck retained the yellow jersey.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, the ChalkBot was spraying messages on the Stage 16 route, the roads between Bagnéres-de-Luchon and Pau. One of them was mine.

Recently I received an email message from Nike with a photo of my message painted on the road, along with the date, the time of day, and the GPS coordinates. Great followup. Mom would have been amazed.

Jul

Clean Bottle awareness summits at Tour de France

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: event marketing, packaging, promotion and social media

At this year’s Tour de France, Bottle Boy was a hit.

Bottle Boy represents Clean Bottle, a new reusable sports bottle that unscrews at both ends. The rather simplistic design concept makes the job of cleaning residue out of the bottom of the bottle easy and helps prevent mold, a concern among runners, cyclists, hikers, and other athletes. The product is available through REI and others.

Clean Bottle launched only months ago with a limited budget. So Dave Mayer, founder, built the five-foot-tall Bottle Boy costume and booked a flight to the Tour de France. On twelve of the stages, he ran alongside the slowing riders as they neared the tops of their climbs. Accordingly, he received significant TV airtime.

“The Tour de France is the Super Bowl of cycling,” Mayer says. “By running with the riders I’d essentially get free commercial time focused on my exact target audience.”

However, the daily logistics of lugging Bottle Boy up and down mountain roads was tough. “Driving all night to get to the next stage and then hauling the costume some times as much as 20 kilometers to the top of every climb is a lot of work, but it’s definitely been worth it,” Mayer says.

He blogged here about his experiences at the Tour with humor and humility. Example: “From all the reactions to (the costume’s carrying bag), I’ve now learned how to say, ‘Is that your mother-in-law?’ in French, Spanish and Dutch.”

So far, the plan seems to have worked. “I’ve gone from $4,000 a month in sales to $4,000 a day,” Mayer reports.

It’s going so well, in fact, one wonders if the stunt was truly guerrilla. Given the amount of airtime and mentions Bottle Boy received, could it have been paid product placement?

Jul

Tour de Tweets II

By Kirk 0 Comments

Categories: cause marketing, event marketing, health care, interactive marketing, promotion, social media and strategy

Note: It’s Tour Time! Here’s a post I wrote last year about the nearly seamless integration of social media into the event. In many ways, the 2009 Tour broke new ground for both participants and fans at major sporting events. And, yes, the ChalkBot is back in 2010!

The 2009 Tour de France, highlighted by Lance Armstrong’s return, may be remembered as much for being the first sporting event in history to fully integrate social media into the competition and the coverage.

Nearly every one of the 20 teams blogged and tweeted (e.g., Garmin-Slipstream and Astana).

Numerous riders and team managers tweeted as well (e.g., Levi Leipheimer, Andy Schleck, and Johan Bruyneel. (For examples of Twitter use by riders, see Dara Kerr’s post at CNET News.)

Active.com combined tweets from all of the participating riders and managers into one stream.

Armstrong, a skilled promoter, was most prolific. In Becky Ebenkamp’s post at Brandweek, Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media, which owns the Livestrong.com community, said, “(Armstrong) called up and said, ‘I … want to broadcast through Livestrong.com exclusively and use Twitter to make sure people can not only see the tour, but actually feel it and hear it directly from my mouth — unedited.’”

His Twitter and Facebook posts regularly included behind-the-scenes videos and photos. A skilled promoter, he leveraged his celebrity and his celebrity friends to raise awareness for Livestrong, such as a video of Ben Stiller clowning on Lance’s warm-up bike.

Traditional sports media relied on Twitter for leads. The Daily Mail published Lance’s Twitter diary. And while many of the riders’ posts were banal, some provided real insight into the action, such as this comment by multiple-stage winner Mark Cavendish, “Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me.”

The official Tour de France site included a fantasy team competition as well as blogs and Twitter.

Versus.com, the site of the TV network which broadcast the race, incorporated a dazzling array of fan-friendly features, including live coverage, mobile alerts, daily blogs including Armstrong’s, a message board, a widget providing updates, podcasts, an ask-the-expert feature, a serialized graphic novel, a sweepstakes, a virtual library of video and photos, trivia quizzes, and games.

One of Armstong’s sponsors, Nike, donates proceeds from the sale of Livestrong products to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Its tour site provided visitors the opportunity to post their own stories in words or video of hope in the face of cancer.

It also featured an ingenious innovation — the Chalkbot. Messages of encouragement and remembrance, texted by site visitors, were spray-chalked thousands of miles away on the roads of the tour during the event by the Chalkbot. Who could resist memorializing a loved one in this way?

The 2009 Tour was perhaps the most connected athletes, teams, sponsors, charities, media and fans have ever been. Where do you think it will lead?

Feb

And the winner is … Google

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: advertising, copywriting, interactive marketing, mass media, search engine marketing, social media and strategy

In its Super Bowl commercial, Google tells an engaging little story of romance with simplicity and elegance. Appropriately, it uses keywords and search results only.

Its logo is onscreen almost the entire time, while it demonstrates several of its features and benefits. It effectively offsets Bing’s recent efforts at malignment.

Not only was the spot inexpensive to produce, but it stood out from the sophomoric humor and over-the top production of the majority of the commercials.

Erik Sherman, in his negative review of the spot at BNET, misses the point that by airing the spot in the Super Bowl, Google reached millions and millions who haven’t already seen it on YouTube.

Smart marketing all the way around.

Which spot do you feel was most effective?

Dec

The North Face dilemma: spank the Butt or turn the other cheek?

By Kirk 3 Comments

Categories: identity, loyalty, promotion, public relations, retail and social media

Okay, it’s a little bit funny.

At least the first time you see this parody of The North Face’s familiar logo.

But The North Face is not laughing. It is, instead, suing young Jimmy Winkelmann, founder of The South Butt brand, for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unfair competition.

Winkelmann isn’t subtle about the inspiration for his line of casual apparel. The South Butt’s tagline is “Never Stop Relaxing,” a play on The North Face’s “Never Stop Exploring.”

On his web site, Winkelmann says, “I thought of The South Butt in response to a growing number of people who continued buying gear and clothes from a brand they really didn’t relate to, but were buying because ‘everyone else was.’

“After seeing the same people wearing the same brands, I decided to create a way to poke fun at the norm, while making an affordable and quality product.”

Despite his disclaimer (“If you are unable to discern the difference between a face and a butt, we encourage you to buy North Face products.”), he’s not just having fun. He’s selling merchandise — much more now due to the media attention provided by the lawsuit.

An article by Jim Salter of the Associated Press quotes the suit: “They (The South Butt) are marketing apparel that directly and unabashedly infringes and dilutes The North Face’s famous trademarks and duplicates The North Face’s trade dress in its iconic Denali jacket.”

“While defendants may try to legitimize their piracy under the banner of parody, their own conduct belies that claim,” the suit said. Supposedly, The South Butt has twice attempted to register its trademark and once offered to sell The South Butt to the The North Face for $1 million.

Winkelmann is capitalizing on the attention. He’s launched a game on his Facebook page, entitled “Can you tell tell the difference between a face and a butt? Take The South Butt Challenge.” He’s making media appearances. He’s leveraging a brand built by someone else. He’s making money.

“This is bigger than facing down a bully in the school yard,” said Albert Watkins, attorney for The South Butt and Winkelmann. “This goes to the heart of competition, the concept of an open marketplace, and the freedom of the public to make their own choice.”

So which is it? A parody, free enterprise, or a rip-off?

Are The North Face customers confused? Not likely.

Are they switching brands? No.

Is The South Butt a long-term threat to The North Face’s market share? No.

For The North Face, this is not about money.

It’s about demonstrating, for legal reasons, that they are willing to defend their brand. One of the ways a brand keeps its trademarks defensible is by proving it will not tolerate copycats. Putting Winkelmann out of business would send a message and serve to scare off other potential interlopers.

But there’s a risk. Legal action and continued media interest may make The North Face look humorless, corporate and stodgy. A heavy-handed handling of this frat-boy joke and the accompanying bad PR may not appeal to its younger customers. (Currently, The North Face does not respond to questions about the lawsuit and does not reference the issue in its social media. So much for transparency.)

How do you think The North Face should handle this?

Drop the lawsuit and be a good sport?

Or scuttle the Butt?