World Cup Brand Marketing Champion: Adidas Or Nike?

With some 2 billion 600 million people around the world pursuing the 2010 World Cup, this spectacular spectacle has become an important day for businessmen. Everyone wants to connect strong fans with brands, because they have their favorite teams. But in fact, those who sell football equipment share a particularly high share. The two competitors, Adidas and Nike, tried to become the undisputed market leader when the whistle of the last finals ended in July 11th. In the 2010, their results showed that they were evenly matched: in 2008 and 2009, each family estimated that they could earn 1 billion 500 million to 1 billion 700 million dollars per household, and each household controlled about 1/3 of the total market.

　　 Adidas Play the referee strategy and become the official sponsor of FIFA World Cup. This means that the referees wear Adidas uniforms, while in football clothes and equipment, in games, football can only appear in brand and TV advertisements, you guessed it, Adidas. In addition, Adidas is the official sponsor of 12 of the 32 World Cup teams, Germany, Argentina and Spain, and their uniforms are decorated with Adidas's trademark.

In view of Adidas's monopoly sponsorship strategy, Nike We had to use other tactics to fight back. As early as the 2006 World Cup, it tried to use digital technology for terminal -- to enter the new online social network that consumers preferred. Nike worked with Google to create the world's first football fan social networking site. It was named Joga.com (referring to the Brazil language JogaBonito, which means "playing beautifully"). The website features a variety of discussion groups, including football, video clips about teams, games and players, as well as the stunning footsteps showing Nike sponsored stars. It can be said that the fans of Nike will gather here, because this is a place to talk with like-minded people all over the world, and their enthusiasm will spread the video everywhere.

Although Nike was not in good shape in the 2006 World Cup, it partly benefited from the fact that Puma's sponsorship (rather than Adidas sponsorship) won the championship, and its strategy of numbers did not improve significantly as it hoped. It is not very realistic for millions of fans to stay in the Joga web page (at the same time skillfully as a reminder of Nike brand). So the problem seems to be that when Nike's behavior verifies that consumers transfer to new media and technology, it does not make further use of it, and it does not obviously change with the change of consumers' expectations, attitudes and behaviors.

Soon after 2010. World Cup Once again, Nike faced Adidas's monopoly of official sponsorship, and it chose the digital attack again. Only this time, its marketing personnel took an unusual approach.

In May 20th, a few weeks before the world cup, Nike launched a 3 minute video advertisement on the Facebook website called "writing the future". In the well designed advertisements, some of the most famous players (all of whom are dressed in Nike costumes) imagine what their future will be like if they are playing or not playing in the match. In less than a week, it was driven by the desire to see this advertisement and spread it, and the number of followers in Nike doubled on Facebook. But "writing the future" is not just a static advertisement. Fans have tools to edit this short film, and their edited version can win votes from appreciative people. At the same time, through the opportunity to write titles in Facebook and Twitter, the fans even have a bigger chance to see their creativity on the light box. Nike will invite them to put a short sentence to report the future of a player. The most popular sentence is displayed on a bright LED light box (still visible from 2.5 kilometers away) in the fourth tall building of Johannesburg, and Nike brand is also on top of the building.

Nike also supports the "writing future" elements that will be displayed in more traditional media with its online advertising campaign. Although this advertisement can not be released in the televised competition, the 30 second version of "writing the future" is chosen to be broadcast on the same channel of other channels and before the football match starts. The ads included in the middle of the TV show include fans' interest to see the full 3 minute online version of publicity.

The success of this advertising campaign is beyond doubt. 5 weeks after its launch, the online advertisement has seen more than 20 million people. According to a survey of Nelson's brand name word-of-mouth (through the survey of brands in blogs, online message boards and social networking sites), in the middle of June, Nike had more than two times the world cup related reputation, compared with Adidas (30.2% to 14.4%).

What is the key to this subversion? Obviously, the success of advertising activities is largely due to the matching of its creative operation with Nike brand image. But the new factor here is that it is in line with the evolution of consumers in the digital age. It can be widely believed that Nike's "writing future" activity is a good case for an enterprise to decide how to make a quick judgement of a trend and find its proper application in its business. (this is the focus of Luke Wasio and I in the Harvard Business Review's latest issue, "are you ignoring the trend that can undermine your career?" )

As early as 2006, Nike was aware of the popularity of social networks, but its consideration was to make full use of this trend and build a website. By 2010, Nike had been thinking more deeply about the implication of this trend: consumers have come to expect to play a more active role in their participation. They now want to customize content and products to suit their preferences and personalities, get feedback on their actions and ideas, and reward them for their contributions. As the first person to discover and disseminate to others, they are greatly satisfied. They are angry at the lack of transparency in their mutual influence.

Nike's efforts in linking these hints to its business need are not limited to the "future writing" campaign. It is also trying to find the same trend in the development of its products. Ask anyone who is engaged in football merchandise business, they will tell you that a lot of money is on your shoes. Manufacturers usually take the opportunity of the world cup to release their latest and best football shoes. For the current world cup, Nike launched the MercurialVaporSuperFlyII's war boots. But those who bought a pair of these shoes provided more motion design than new ones with increased acceleration. The shoe has a unique user code. Once the code is entered on the Internet, a complete training plan will be untied. Nike's soccer + program development and the collaboration of the world's leading coaches and players provide countless training courses video, suggestions and ways to improve their sports. The program can also be downloaded by iPhone and other mobile phones with website functions. The athletes pay more than 300 dollars, no longer just to have a pair of better shoes, they also get a service to help them become better players.

In a matter of days, the 2010 World Cup will become a history (before the World Cup finals), Nike's current activities and current sports shoes will enter the heyday. What is sustainable is its understanding of how to estimate a big new trend, how to apply it to the challenges of its business and the possible successes that may arise. Other companies that want to win the next hot new thing should pay attention to this.