This was again one of my favourite seminars. They have cool shit going on. They presented 3 cases that they were and had been working on lately. NIKEiD – Nike’s custom shop on the Net and in their NikeTowns. Nothing new but very cool and excellently executed – a service that not only sells high priced sneakers, but also creates WOM, goodwill, etc. I actually heard that they were also doing a photo version og ID, where you upload a picture and have that put on the shoe. Next was Baller’s Network – basically a game scheduler for people who play basketball. In here you can find out where the games are, you can challenge friends, find out who’s the best and the worst. Many of the same functions as Nike+, a bit more niche, but very cool. They integrated an application for FaceBook, so that you can have challenges and challenge directly on your profile. Again everyone talks about it but Nike just does it – no pun intended. Other cool stuff – The Human Race is a happening where they hope to get 1 million runners out to run 10k’s on August 31. 2008. Stefan Olander, Global Comms Director for Nike, announced it almost as 9/11. Very American…for a Swede that is. Every one who docks their Nike+ are a part of it. But they will do Run London’ish stuff in something like 10 cities. Basically this is a Nike+ event. Finally, of smaller stuff, they presented an other cool little application called My Nike+ Mini, which is a little avatar for your FaceBook profile, which reacts according to your runs and activity – so it links up with Nike+ and does fun stuff. The basic concept of Nike revolves around 3 pillars – Customization, mobility and personal data. They create stuff that drives use of product and creates loyalty and WOM. Yes indeed.

/Baek

I liked this seminar. Everyone talks about the same thing. It is quite interesting though when someone does it from a different perspective. The message from Wunderman was that the consumers are in charge and we need to create valuable content…jadajadajada. But in stead of talking from a media or content perspective, Wunderman talked about PR and conversations, which was fresh. The hook of the presentation was that we need to start conversations. And as such goes we need to release control, because it is impossible to control both sides of the conversation. 5 new rules were presented. 1) Active listening; 2) Join and lead the conversation; 3) Be the topic of the conversation; 4) Set your brand free; 5) Create many conversations. I think they are pretty self explanatory, so I won’t go into detail. Wunderman also presented a few interesting statistics. For instance that Automotiv industry  business is 1/3 driven by WOM. That more and more people are skipping the official test drive because they talk to friends and test drive their cars. And finally Wunderman pointed to the Internet as the future of PR or conversations. Places such as ePinions and Gizmodo are where it will all be happening. Good stuff in a new perspective.

/Baek

I just thought I’d invite you all to attend the second version of Act Out Awards, which will take place on thursday, November 28, 2007. in Hal D in Copenhagen. In short ACT OUT AWARDS is the result of the following discouse:

The Challenge: The technical schools in Denmark have a bad image within the target group (15-17yrs). It‘s an uncool place with old-fashioned courses. The schools offer much more but it is hard to get the message through to these ad-resistant youngsters. We concluded that we had to change the schools from withing. We had to works on the identity before we could get startet on the image.

The Solution: Creation of ACT OUT AWARDS – a competition that allows for technical creativeness while showcasing the schools’ offers. Using youngsters’ media: website (www.skabdig.dk), user-generated content, viral campaign, MSN Messenger TAB and PR activities.

The Results for ACT OUT AWARDS I: 52 teams competed. 100,000 website users. 600 students/ potential students attending the Awards Show ceremony. The value of additional press coverage amounted to 65% of the total campaign budget.

Here is a short clip of the Awards show from the first execution. Excellent fun.

In the course of the first round of ACT OUT campaign, we actually had someone make a tribute fan video for the compaign. This has never happened to me before, so I’ll share that with you also. If you don’t have a fan video yet…I highly recommend it. It works wonders for your ego. That really shows the power of User Generated communication.

Finally I’ll share one of the clips we made and seeded for viral distribution. Not conventional sex and violence, but all about technical creativity and how women can now pee standing up. Our final bastion has fallen…speaking as a man.

Read more about the ACT OUT campaign on www.skabdig.dk. Hope you all enjoy and hope to see you in Hal D on November 28.

/Baek 

As a twin or tag-on to the fantastic Run London (and Paris, Berlin, New York, etc.) Nike+ has created a new engaging piece of communication or activity. The event is called Nike+ Supersonic. And people competed in 100m and 1k sprints. Finalists won a set of Nike+ trainers and an iPod nano. So simple and yet so effective and cool. They molded the entire campaign around the same idea. The commercial, the myspace subsite (http://www.myspace.com/NikeSupersonic), the event, the after party. And with the products center stage.

Great job… Here is a link to Wieden + Kennedy’s experience with it.

 http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2007/11/nike-supersonic.html#trackback

 /Baek

Today, the Crown prince & co returned to Denmark after spending 4 days in NYC attending the business and trade campaign; Creative Nation.  Creative Nation is initiated by the Danish trade organizations. It is an initiative, which according to DI has a “..purpose of increasing the awareness to Danish businesses and their products on the OECD-markets through innovative and creative marketing activities”. (pls note the wording ‘innovative and creative’ in this – I’ll get back to this later on). 

The campaign in NYC consisted of a champagne reception at the exclusive, Japanese department store Takashimay at Fifth Avenue. Until 1^st October, the store will be packed with crème de la crème fashion and design brands from DK. Well, that’s nice. Danish fashion really got it going on. Indeed we should be proud of one of our largest exports. And showing this off at one of the most prominent and luxurious streets in the world. Well there you go! Besides the fashion, Danish food had special focus on the conference.  Claus Meyer was invited to do some ‘New Scandinavian Cooking’. Once again, I completely understand why CM is representing our food creativity. Michelin-star rated Restaurant Noma is not something to joke about. CM has a strong and very credible brand value, at least in our own point of view. Now everything has come to an end.

The royalties says they’re tired but satisfied. But the fact is that there hasn’t been one single high-profiled American media represented to write about the initiative.  Not yet, at least. But since actuality is the mantra of the print/TV media I doubt it will happen now that the visit is over. Of course the Danish world press has been circling around the couple like vultures circling over the dead body. They were covering the final press meeting Friday afternoon together with a Swedish guy and an Australian. If you assume that the visit was initiated to make relations, discussions and networking, then I think it’s critical that there hasn’t been a broader interest and PR coverage about the visit, especially from the American media.

What went wrong? If you look at the concept and content of the visit some things bother me: Firstly, you appoint NYC as the host-city. Great choice – NYC is one of the most creative cities on the planet, so there is a perfect match between ‘message’ and ‘channel’. From here it’s marketing One-on-One: You need to do something really, really creative and alternative stuff in order to get the attention. I tell ya, a visit to a department store and some Danish cooking supported by some royalties from a country far, far away (no associations to Shrek intended whatsoever) will not do the job alone. Secondly, you put together an agenda so last season and predictable, it’s crying to the stars. Take for example the visit to NYSE. Pol.dk is actually proving my point in a nut-shell:

“Just before, the Crown Prince and the trade minister, Bendt Bendtsen, had breakfast with the CEO for NYSE, John Thain. Before they arrived at the balcony in order to push the button and ringing the bell, the two Danes wrote in the guest book and talked to the press” (source: pol.dk).

I know that a visit to NYSE is related to many of rituals and standards, but come on. That’s simply not good enough. Why even waste the time? And tell me, how does a visit to a stock exchange fit with the core brand message; a creative nation? And If you take a look at the promotion activities around this initiative, one of the most ‘creative’ things that has been done is the photo upload on flickr (?) Why don’t you take yourselves a bit more serious? Creative Nation is not only about fashion, food and art – and business relations! Well there’s nothing wrong with that, but here in 2007 you really need to think differently and stage it quite differently in order to get the impact. Especially if your country brand promise is The Creative Nation! In the press material they promise ‘innovative’ and ‘creative’ – and that exactly what’s called for, if you want to get the worlds’ attention. In DK we are blessed with some of the most creative and inventive communication specialists, so there’s no excuse. Break conventions and ‘usually do’s’  - then I’ll promise that the world press will listen. 

/Annette