"Buy the Way…" Insights on Integrated Marketing Communication

Greatness. It’s just something we made up.

Somehow we’ve come to believe that greatness is a gift, reserved for a chosen few. For prodigies. For superstars. And the rest of us can only stand by, watching.

You can forget that.

Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. It’s not someprecious thing. Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it.

All of us.

The touched words are quoted from Nike’s new campaign. I’m not a big television advertising fan and I’m even less a Nike fan. But they have a series of commercials on television during the Olympic Games that I positively love.

Nike and Adidas are both leading brands in sports market. Interestingly, the two competitors share quite a lot of similarities in terms of brand mission, target audiences, communication strategy and so forth. In this summer, might to cater for the Olympic atmosphere, the two companies launched their new campaigns. In this blog, I would like to give a comparison on how Adidas and Nike tell their brand story.

Adidas continues the same theme in 2011 ‘Adidas is all in’, which brought together sport, street, and style celebrities in one campaign. The assemble effect from these stars appears quite eye-attractive. The creative concept behind the campaign is not only showing that Adidas is making every effort to offer best for the customers; but more importantly, it also means the love of the game, the career, the life that we put all our heart into everything we  love.

The centerpiece of Nike’s campaign is a “Find Your Greatness” film that breaks through social media and digital channels on July 25. Cited official description, it is not just the championship athlete or record breaker that aspires to push their limits. It is also the everyday athlete who strives to excel on their own terms, to set and realize personal goals and achieve their own defining moment of greatness.

The film shows everyday athletes from around the world training, playing and competing, with the common thread that the locations featured are all called London. We first join a scene at “London Gym” where a man pumps out crunches during a workout, then go to a rugby match in East London, South Africa, where a boy breaks the line handing off a larger opponent.  In Little London, Jamaica, a female boxer works the pads with consummate skill and precision. In London, Ohio, we see a close up of a focused young baseball player catch the ball and throw it to first base in one seamless action. While each athlete defines their own goals and success, they are all connected by a unifying sense of what greatness could be to them.

Please click the link below to watch the campaign video.

Advertising Video for Nike’s Find Your Greatness Campaign (London Centric)

The core information from Adidas and Nike is similar，both encourage everyone in their own personal achievement, inspirational and emotional.  Moreover, this time they both focus on the young customers, the next generation. However, their way of telling the story is quite different.

In Adidas’ promotion video, David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Derrick Rose and Katy Perry go all in. In four positions worldwide, in different time, the video describes their running activities. The footage is beautiful and classic. However, from my point of view, there are several problems.

Please click the link below to watch Adidas’ WE ALL RUN promotion video:

Adidas’ Promotion Video of All In campaign: Adidas We All Run

Firstly, the communication concept is confused. The information of ‘all in’ is not well expressed by official posters or promotion video. From the audiences’ perspective, what they saw is the assembling of stars. Although eyes-attractive, it has nothing to do with the spirit of ‘all in’. More seriously, these footages of celebrities are simply mixed together without a real concrete story line. As suggested in the book of Made to Stick, a story or a concrete but simple, clear information is pivotal if we want to effectively spread an idea.  Viewers are hard to receive the deep information of ‘all in’ as Adidas’ branding expectations merely depends on several stars’ appearance. Moreover, according to Adidas branding manager, ‘adidas has to connect to these kids and get them excited’. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say it’s hard to find the insights on connecting young generation in this video.

In conclusion, in Adidas’ campaign, the information about what the brand is, what the brand delivers and what the viewers receive is not consistent.

In comparison to Adidas, I think Nike does better on telling their brand story. The film reaches its climax when we are reminded of the power in seemingly everyday moments from a young girl performing flips in her front garden to the crescendo of a young boy deliberating a first jump from a high diving board into a pool – a defining moment for him that ends in a final leap into his own moment of greatness. The theme is better delivered with the help of clear narratage.

Here is another perfect illustration on how Nike tells a story, please click the link below to watch another very successful advertising video on Find Your Greatness campaign:

Nike Campaign : Find Your Greatness (Jogging)

This is Nathan. He is 12 years old. He’s from London, Ohio. Greatness is not beyond his reach, nor is it for any of us.

There is only one scene in this film: a overweigh boy kept jogging, closer and closer. It cannot be defined as a story, however, the core information: everyday athletes, everywhere, every achievement during participating and enjoying the thrill of an athletic lifestyle is clear and delivered in an emotional way.

Finally, I would like to say that tell a brand story is not only about inviting celebrities as spokesman, or making a beautiful video. The most important thing is how to clearly clarify the core information and make full use of everything we have. For instance, there are mountainous celebrities represent for Adidas as well, however, Adidas apparently should explore more aournd each spokesman, say, create personal story for each star rather than simply ‘copy paste’ all of their pictures in one poster.

During the summer internship, when I was asked to create an official sina weibo account (the Chinese version of twitter) of our PR agency, the first idea came to my mind is that I want a picture of a lady dressed in orange to be this account’s profile picture because our agency’s representative color is orange, which is also the color tone of all staff’s business cards.  The basic idea is that we want to personify this account as an office lady who loves work and life. All the posts will be like causal talks, office gossips, small opinions and even little complaints, but secretly hide in some of the project information that we are doing. We want this account to create a positive, professional, approachable impression for the brand, not just another simple advertising platform.

The idea of brand personification has been applied by many brands. In 2011, Dolce & Gabbana commissioned one of its employees to anonymously provide behind-the-scenes photos and details via Twitter in Milan Fashion week to personify the brand. These tweets provide D&G customers an insider’s perspectives on goings-on of D & G, including pictures of models, samples of makeup, runway images and pictures of Stefano Gabbana, Domenico Dolce and other brand heads. According to Daniel Rosenberg, a social media expert from Ann Arbor, “The strategy is to focus on creating a personality outside of the generic D & G Twitter handle and by doing this it enables a social personality that people like to see,” “A mundane Twitter account just offering deals is cool, but consumers want to see somebody in the trenches. D& G wants to create a personality that is internalized so that they can push it out,” he said.

There are sufficient theoretical explanations for brand personification. When asking about a brand, most people will immediately come up with a few words to describe this brand. Marlboro is ‘masculine’ while Virginia Slims is ‘feminine’ IBM is ‘older’ while Apple is ‘younger. Coke is ‘conforming’ while Pepsi is ‘irreverent’. Axe is about seduction, masculinity, unconventionality and Levi’s is about rebellion, sensuality, being cool. It all comes so naturally and intuitively that you almost feel like talking about some friends with certain characteristics. Such set of human characteristics attached with brands are called brand personality. Brand personality, like human personality, is both distinctive and enduring. It is formed from the average consumers’ experiences with the brand and represents the common expectation from a brand.

     Successfully building brand personality helps the company gain an in-depth understanding of consumer perceptions of brand. It contributes to a differentiating identity, guides the communication effort and even creates brand equity.

      Even though brand personification can be achieved by various ways, such as its sponsorship and logo, I’m particular interested in its utilization in brand management in social media. Previous survey shows that there are 61% of fans follow a brand page for the purpose of obtaining discount information, another 55% for the brand-relevant events and information. For those discount information-oriented followers, will they resonate with a brand’s new communication contents? Or are some brands more suitable to implement such social media brand personification?  For those brands that necessarily contain discounts, smartly personifying your brand on a social media platform while still providing your fans the information they want can be a skillful task.

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most eminent thriller directors of Hollywood. The way he produced suspense in his movies has been replicated repeatedly by following generations of his counterparts.

But he also acted. As a matter of fact, he made a total of 39 self-referential cameos in his movies and the audience would watch every scene closely in order to identify him; it seems like a bonus when they could spot the director’s representative silhouette among the disturbing background because Hitchcock always played trifling parts—one of the bystanders or some random guy hustling down the street. Rabid fans could reiterate every scene in which Hitchcock showed up and his audience enjoyed playing hide-and-seek with him.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980)

The famous silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock

The thing is, when you think about it, if Hitchcock put himself on stage all the time, or if he assigned himself normal characters that could be availably seen, what was the chance the audience would fancy his acting performance? Directors acting in their own movies was nothing novel even back then and yet Hitchcock promoted himself so well that those bland parts he played still make a topic today. What makes it so unique and so clingy to the audience? What’s been giving audiences the itch to focus on Hitchcock’s commonplace performance? The knack is “less is more”.

Alfred showed up for a few minutes, sometimes in disguise. The harder he strived to act negligibly, the more audience wanted to find him out. Not trying to promote himself too hard, the thriller director left the work to his audience and they’ve been talking about it ever since. Yes, that’s the gist of it.

Hitchcock performing in one of his movies

Silent promotion could intrigue audience/customers just as well. You just need to pick the right time, right place and right person to showcase the right product. Then, you speak no words. You glide away. Leave the efforts to the customers. They will track you down and offer to buy the product. Of course, there are certain prerequisites to this tactic. First, the product should be topnotch (in Hitchcock’s case he was a first-class director). Handbags from last season will never sell themselves through silent promotion. Second, you talk less not because you simply want to look low-key. The silence is intended for the dramatic effects. It is created to engross people and thus deliver more.

Yi-li Shuhua Milk Product Placement in Transformers III

Meters/bonwe Product Placement in Transformer III

Accompanying the entertaining scenes and generating purchase motivation at the same time, product placement in movies is one type of silent promotion. Hollywood movies now teem with scenes presenting branded products, most of which are already household names. For example, 68 brands were placed in the latest Transformers movie and these include big names such as Nokia, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Apple, etc., making it somewhat a runway show of these market leaders. Four Chinese brands, Yi-li Shuhua Milk, Meters/bonwe, Lenovo and TCL, also wrote fat checks  to be placed in the movie and enchant especially the Chinese audience.

Michelle Obama’s Jason Wu Inaugural Gown

Jason Wu

In some cases silent promotion is off the screen. When emerging designers’ work was put on by the right person and shown in the right place at the perfect time, like during the fashion week, their name could soon be heard around the fashion world. Myriad fledgling fashion brands actually took off this way. In Jason Wu’s case, his fashion career expands at a staggering speed largely thanks to his muse, the First Lady. The moment Michelle Obama was seen in the now-well-known ivory-colored one-shouldered Jason Wu chiffon inaugural ball gown, the then 26-year-old designer’s career was destined to soar.

There are tons of other ways silent promotion could be conducted. We could always promote when we say less, but keep in mind that there are prerequisites. If your product is not a babe, the silent promotion is nothing but suicide.

I bought a pink nail polish AGAIN this weekend when I was shopping in the Beverly Center. Actually, I have already got more than 15 colors in my house. But I just cannot stop buying more colors to add to my collection. A lot of my female friends are crazy about nail polish. As Pam Pastor said in Inquirer Life Style: “ I only wear lipstick when I go to weddings, but I feel naked when my nails are lacquer-free.” Recently, I found the grey color became popular when I read the fashion blog. It is only because Michelle Obama was wearing it when she gave the speech in DNC. The gray nail polish attracted women who even did not listen to her speech.

After searching on the Internet, I was shocked by how exploding the nail polish industry is nowadays. Market research firm Mintel revealed that lipstick sales have shrunk since 2007. DNP group, another research firm, showed that nail polish sales increased by 59% while lipstick sales only grew 8% in the first 10 months of 2011. The nail polish index would probably replace lipstick index in the near future. Many apparel brands, such as American Apparel, Topshop and Kate Spade, released their nail polish lines. What’s more, some celebrities, such as Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry, worked with nail color brands to introduce their own color.

With the fast growth of nail polish industry. Marketers have applied nail polish as a tactic to advertise their products. Many movies released their nail polish line as one of the most important merchandises to attract female audiences. For example, the Amazing Spider-Man collection was released in May 2012. The Hunger Games and The Muppets released their collection according to the characters in the movie. Surprisingly, even Pirates of the Caribbean: “On Stranger Tides” introduced the nail color corporate with OPI in spring 2011. The nail polish triggered discussions among fashioned females before and after movies are released. Expect for movies, TV shows such as Glee and Kardashian Kolor also expanded their business to nail color industry to gather more female audiences. In addition, Nokia successfully released a pink nail polish to match with the new phone, hot pink Lumia 900. And Nokia even conducted a campaign to hire the manicurists to provide service to female Nokia phone users.

Nail polish has become a popular marketing strategy to attract female consumers. The success of celebrities and movies related nail polish lines proved that it is actually a clever move to target women through a novel channel. First of all, the nail polish is visualized and easy to be associated with either products or brands. And it is affordable than other makeup and skin care products. A little bottle of nail polish could show the color and characteristics of a product or a brand. Secondly, the nail polish can attract female customers from young little girls to aged women. Females in all ages love their colorful nails to match their outfit, handbags and shoes and express their personalities. It is a portable marketing ad that can reach larger customer group than you can expect. The nail color is “sticky” to hands and females are willing to share beauty and fashion experiences together. As a result, the word-of-mouth marketing strategy will work to explore more product awareness. Third, with the booming of nail polish products, it is easy to trigger discussions in fashion and beauty industry via various traditional and social media platforms. So the products can grasp this chance to reach broader audiences or customers not only limited to females.