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At the Nike analyst call earlier this week, an analyst asked a question suggesting we were witnessing the bursting of the "Sports Bubble". Below is CEO Mark Parker's very smart response.

Suggesting the company knows how to respond to a changing world where new engagement is taking place, as well as new activities.

"I’ll just jump in. It is an interesting thing, a sports bubble that you mentioned. You mentioned a couple of things. Attendance may be down in some cases but I think viewer-ship is actually up. So I think that is something you have to think about a little bit. You talk about traditional access to events which has been a metric that most people use, versus really what maybe a new access is which is really more like immersion. We are seeing kids online anywhere from 20 minutes to 2-3 hours as they immerse themselves in the new access points to sports whether it is through the athletes, through communities that are talking about it and it is 24 hours a day. So that has changed incredibly.

I think the other thing you think about too is the traditional sports, the stick and ball sports versus the new action sports and the different communities and environments that are being created around some of these and some of the things we have talked about as we build our brand in some of these new areas. For us it is all about a focused effort around each one of these sports and their communities. I think we have talked a lot about that consumer experience and how we continue to build the brand and reinvent the brand, connecting with these kids. I think the bubble may not be as much a bubble. Maybe if you are in the old and not transitioning to the new you may feel like you are in a bubble and it is about ready to burst. But if you are part of the new it is really almost an infinite landscape from which to engage with consumer in new and energetic ways."

Posted by Ed Cotton I am surprised it took so long, but according to Campaign in the UK, Adidas is officially jealous of Nike's success with Nike+ and it wants its own.

This could be the agency brief of the year and one of the branding world's most challenging assignments, because no other brand, in sports or beyond, has come close to delivering a layered, engaging experience quite as good as Nike+.

The Campaign story lacks some critical information about the real nature of the brief, the timing and the agencies that Adidas is talking to.

It's especially interesting because it's asking agencies, assuming they are talking to traditional shops, to stretch well outside their comfort zone.

Will it involve product development?

Partnerships?

Technology?

Building robust social networks?

I can only assume Adidas is looking for an idea that replicates the level of brand engagment of Nike+, rather than simply copying it.

The interesting question here is what makes sense for the Adidas brand?

Nike has made an about-turn in its strategy, especially for running, instead of focusing on only the elite athletes, it has now learned to love and embrace, "anyone who runs". This would have been an unthinkable concept in Beaverton 5 years ago.

Adidas, in many ways, have focused on the athletes and their superhuman efforts. The brand has pushed into Nike's old space with "Impossible is Nothing". It's a focus on the elite athlete and their extreme edge of performance.

While the Campaign story makes it clear that this isn't going to impact the brand's main agency relationships, however, the participating agencies are aren't going to be able to create a rival idea, unless they take a long, hard look at the future of the Adidas brand. You can't separate the two things, so this one is going to get interesting.






Posted by Ed Cotton Bill Tancer of Hitwise recently presented some interesting stats on participation levels on Web 2.0 sites, his research found that only .16% of all YouTube visits were to upload video and only 0.2% of Flickr visits were to upload photographs.

As we are in the “Participation Age” there seems to be a need to expand the number of participants. It’s questionable if brands are doing enough and by brands, we mean these Web 2 brands and creative brands in general; video cameras, computer brands, digital camera brands, printer brands, etc….

Obviously, the 1% rule is being played out, but think of the market potential if that 1% could be increased to 2%.

Brands in this space need to think about how they can encourage participation, this is part incentive and partly education. The education part is important and can obviously there need to be different streams for different segments; from the non-user, to the user who isn’t interested in sharing.

Clearly all brands that want to move into the Web 2 space and create community and conversation need to listen up, this stuff doesn’t just magically happen, it needs encouragement and education.

One interesting example is the Daily Telegraph newspaper in the UK, yesterday it launched a blogging service for its readers. For many, this could sound foolish, given the abundance of free blogging platforms, but this is smart as it’s going to attract their readers who trust DT more than the small blogging brands. In addition, in a challenging time for newspapers, there is a lot to gain by doing this and is reaching out and providing education and utility for a new group of participants.



Participation is the tangible offshoot of engagement, which has become the fashionable thing to try and measure these days.

It’s clear, if brands want thriving communities and strong brand relationships, they need do more than pay lip service to the notion of participation.

Is participation a new metric for engagement?