Athletic shoe makers discover mobile advertising a good fit

Tag : used shoe

There are countless companies trying to target consumers throughtheir phones, but mobile advertising may be an especially good fitfor athletic shoes.

Pardon the pun.

Nike kicked off  oops, launched  an interactive campaign in HongKong last month to tout a new soccer shoe by placing swoosh-markedimages in its retail stores, subway stations and other high-trafficareas. A downloadable application allows users to simply point acamera phone at the image to summon a 3-D image of the T90 shoe andsoccer ball as well as a location-specific code. Soccer fans areencouraged to text in the code to receive information regarding thenext secret destination in a kind of mobile scavenger hunt; eachtext also counts as an entry to win Nike merchandise.

That kind of campaign might seem a bit too interactive togenerations accustomed to passively absorbing print ads or TVcommercials. But Howard Hung of The Hyperfactory, a NewZealand-based mobile marketing firm that powers the promotion,claims consumers are looking to be more involved with campaignsthat offer something in return for their attention.

Being able to walk around on the footpath and view a product onthe side of a building from all angles in 3-D whilst beingrewarded? asked Hunt, who serves as The Hyperfactorys businessdevelopment and mobile integration manager. That can never be toomuch&. By offering something consumers havent seen before andgiving them a chance to control it gives a brand exceptionalcut-through.

The Hyperfactory teamed with McCann Erickson on the campaign, whichcoincided with the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. That effort came onthe heels  sorry, did it again  of a similar promotion from Pumasurrounding the high-profile tournament. Puma offered teamringtones and chants that could be programmed to sound whenever theteam scored, and provided free conference-calling for like-mindedfans to discuss the action.

U.S. play

Closer to home, Adidas continues to leverage mobile as part of theBasketball is a Brotherhood campaign that launched last year. Thepromotion features Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett and otherhoopsters, enticing mobile users to send a text message to receiverecorded voice calls from the NBA stars. Those calls directed fansto a Web site where they could create personalized ringtones usingthe athletes voices.

Those kinds of campaigns cant hope to attract a massive audience,thanks to the high bar of interactivity and the fact that most U.S.consumers still use their phones only for making calls. But thedemographic marks the sweet spot for mobile content consumption  which skews to young males  and it makes for a farmore sticky experience than traditional advertising. And whileapproaching consumers initially through the phone is a non-starter sending an unsolicited text message is a very dangerousproposition, obviously  using other platforms to spur a mobileconversation seems an effective ploy.

Good glue

Mobile is often referred to as the glue capable of binding greatcampaigns together, Hunt said via e-mail from his Hong Kongoffice. Its no surprise then that campaigns deliver the bestresults when mobile is well thought-out in conjunction with allother disciplines, particularly channel integration.

Just as importantly, mobile  for now, at least  remains arelatively inexpensive way to reach users, especially consumers whoare young, hip and difficult to reach through other media. Mobileadvertising remains a dicey proposition for many brands given alack of reach, poor analytics and a value chain that remains fartoo complex, but it appears athletic-shoe companies are findingsolid footing in the space.

Its cheap, its great, it works great for our brand, ChrisMurphy, director of digital marketing for Adidas US, told anaudience at last months Mobile Marketing Forum in New York. Justdont tell our competition.