Commercial collaborations: Tools, things and toys, PICNIC08 - Michael Tchao Nike+
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 10:56:AM
Everyone loves Nike+, you can’t move in London these days for the same agency types who once happily swanned about saying “Ooooh! You should get a brand profile on MySpace” now saying “Well, of course, it’s all about marketing as a service now, just look at Nike+”.
The thing is, they typically can’t give you any other examples, and they don’t really understand Nike+ either. One guy who does, though, is Michael Tchao, the man with one of the most desirable jobs in marketing.
Michael’s general manager of Nike’s Techlab and heads the Nike+ team, looking at connecting physical products with virtual services and online communities. He describes the team’s work as looking at how digital can transform sport, and how they can help turn information into inspiration and connect physical activities to digital communities.
He gets out on the road a lot (presumably giving the same presentation) and you can see a chat with him after presenting at Cannes this year below:
The Nike+ story is well documented, so I won’t summarise (if you need a summary, then this blog really isn’t for you, sorry) but I’ll look instead at what really stood out from Michael’s session.
The important take-out was Nike’s belief in the goal of bringing technology to running, and their continued focus on this until the technology was there to make it real.
Michael detailed the antecedents of the current system (the Nike Monitor from 1987, the size of a VHS tape and strapped to your chest, the SDM Triax watch from ‘99 described by Nike’s CEO as “a tumour” and then placed this continual focus on their goal in a frame of an ongoing customer insight programme.
He makes his points well, he knows where he’ll get the main audience laugh (the San Francisco women’s half marathon where their research had shown that they shouldn’t give the finishing runners medals, they should give them a Tiffancy necklace. In a Tiffany box. Presented by a Firefighter. In a Tuxedo), and he has a slightly too slick corporate video to end on.
Great job though, and perhaps this is the year that we’ll finally see other brands and their agencies grasp what exactly it really was Nike and Apple did here and develop similarly awesome and innovative services. Please?
