Just Do It- The Nike Way
Nikes got some serious social media game. Being a person who’s heavily involved in athletics, the first brand that ever comes to my mind is Nike. Why is this? Well… I never looked far into why Nike is constantly on my mind, but RTA902 has made me extremely aware of what i’m exposing myself to online based on who and what I follow. Noticing the past few weeks, Nike has taken over my newsfeed. Whether i’m looking for it or not, Nike’s constantly got something new for me to see and they aren’t afraid to be regularly showing me whats out there. Besides being consistent, what is it about Nikes online strategy that makes them so attractive to consumers like myself? Well I dove deeper into the archives of Nike’s social media and was seriously impressed with what I noticed.
Nike is one of the biggest brands in the world. It’s famous for its athletic wear and its well-known slogan, “Just Do It”. Nike has been around since 1964, first known as “Blue Ribbon Sports” then has switched over to its famous, “Nike” name in 1971. Nike was one of the first major brands to sign contract deals with famous athletes, the most well known probably Michael Jordan and the release of popular “Jordan” brand. The famous check mark of Nike didn’t just happen overnight. It took years of marketing and developing a brand to make it so successful. As we turned into the Internet days and the social media era, Nike needed to step up its game and find out ways to reach a larger audience. They did so by reaching consumers online. With their success on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, Nike has brought in more fans then ever and continues to grow each day, and most importantly- create loyal fans.
Nikes Interactive Campaigns
Nike uses social media unlike any other brands. It not only promotes its products by showing what their newest stuff is and how it competes with other brands, but it focuses more on campaigning and getting their followers interacting with the use of hashtags. For instance, their #BelieveInMore hashtag supported by video ads and pictures that promote woman in sport and displaying our full capabilities. This campaign has encouraged woman around the world to participate in athletics, and exercise to be their best self.
Nike campaigns are also created and released in relation to other major current events. In 2012, Nike launched the My Time Is Now (#MakeItCount) campaign during the European Soccer Championships. The campaign featured some of the world’s best players and it portrayed the dedication and determination for success in these young athletes. To support this campaign, Nike also created and released through their social media a film that featured some amazing athletes, including Christiano Ronaldo, Wesley Sneijder and Franck Ribery (to name a few). Alike the #BelieveInMore campaign, this encouraged people around the world to become involved in athletics and exercise, and what better way to do it by strapping on a pair of Nike runners and track pants and wear what the best of the best wear.
By having average social media users using these hashtags, it promotes the Nike brand and also subconsciously encourages regular people to buy their products, also becoming a part of the online discussion. Pages are updated multiple times daily to keep users engaged and up to date with absolutely everything.
One of the biggest interactive campaigns that Nike ran was the Fuel Your Team campaign that used social media along with their own Nike platform- Nike+, which has over 6 million members. They released a Nike Fuel Band, which linked to their personal Nike+ accounts. These Nike+ fitness bands track its users day-to-day activity, creating charts and letting every user create their own personal goals. By using the band, participants were given Nike Fuel points to obtain certain achievements. In 2013, Nike added a component to this campaign to help support local college basketball. The Fuel Your Team campaign gave users the chance to donate their Fuel Points to their favourite teams, to show support. This campaign included videos and social media hashtags to keep fans connected, and it showed how powerful their overall engagement and support has been. This campaign got fans physically involved, giving them awards for using their products, and provided them with countless people marketing their achievements online through various platforms. These campaigns are consistently changing and being added to, to keep the audience interested and always providing them something new and exciting.
Nike and its Many Feeds
Nike has an astonishing amount of social media pages, just within one platform. Nike has its one official Nike page, but in addition to that, has one for each popular sport that they support.
By having separate pages for each sport, it allows followers to direct their interest into specific divisions. This allows for each page to build it’s own following, similar or separate from what their other pages may have- creating a sense of community. It also gives the page and its followers an opportunity to focus on one sport and goal, directing specific questions, tips or merchandise to their audience. This gives for a very specific audience, allowing them to better connect and relate to their content. Looking at one of my favourite Nike pages, @Nikebasketball, the page creates content specifically supporting the NBA and NCAA basketball. It is important for me, as a huge basketball fan, to have these separate platforms sharing these resources here on one page, instead of having to sort through Nikes general account to find sport specific related posts. Nike is also extremely intelligent in its marketing in the way that many big athletes are apart of their brand, especially their sport specific pages. Having big names such as Demar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Paul George and Anthony Davis, connecting these pages to their personal accounts, reaches an even bigger audience. Whether you’re a fan of Nike, a fan of these famous athletes or a fan of basketball, you will most likely find yourself on the @Nikebasketball account at one time or another.
Mentions and Audience Engagement
On social media, Nike does an awesome job at getting their audience involved. Whether it’s through their campaigns, encouraging hashtags or their mentions, Nike finds their audience getting more and more active in the online discussion. The Nike + Run Club (@NikeRunning) is one of the pages that this stuck out most to me. This page not only promotes health and fitness (specifically running) but is also used as an open forum where users can direct questions to and expect a response. The people behind this account are so motivational, it almost made me close my computer and go out for a run. Here we see numerous amount of mentions, mainly people asking for guidance with their daily work out routines. @NikeRunning replies with advice along with a few words of inspiration. This, alike the various Nike campaigns, has people talking about the brand and allows for each one of its followers to become a promoter in their own way. I mean, word of mouth is the best type of marketing.
The Nike Aesthetic
Aesthetic can be really important to some social media users. The aesthetic behind Nike’s online social media accounts may not really be a physical appearance that they strive for, but more of an overall attitude and message. With social media, comes the dark side of it. Nike’s online branding attempts to block out the dark side of social media, and promote a sense of community and motivation. Its constant messages of “you can do this” come through the written posts, images and videos that Nike has created and published online. Nike creates a world where everyone is equal and has a voice, participating in sport. One of their newest campaign, #EQUALITY promotes the powerful message that everyone is equal. Their post from February reads, “We step onto the court as equals. Judged only by our performance”.
Being positive reinforcements on social media is constantly pushed through their posts and their messages of being the best self you can. Nike’s pictures also promote equality and diversity by the way they feature people of many different cultures. This was evident in their newest launch of the athletic hijab for female Muslim athletes. Many people praised this, saying that Nike is one of the first brands to finally reach and incorporate people who are Muslim, creating a hijab that can be used in athletics. This supports the Nike aesthetic with equality, motivation, and creating community.
Brand Loyalty
When Nike tells you to “Just Do It”, they aren’t only telling you but they’re also helping you do this. Through its motivation and its fitness tracking products such as Nike+, Nike is not only all talk, but actually provides ways that their consumers achieve their goals. With these products, especially the Nike+ Fuel Band and its online fitness tracking app, Nike depends on fan loyalty to come into play, ultimately making its costumers choose them over their major competitors.
Nikes overall online social media goal is to get people involved and actively talking about their products. With the use of their many campaigns, encouraging users to participate, as well as their active mentions and fan engagements, Nike has found itself huge success with reaching their audience and promoting their brand in a non-traditional yet extremely effective way.
Nike has certainly “brought its game” in the world of social media. This brand stood out to me particularly in the way that it marketed itself online. I’ve been following various Nike pages online, my favourite being Nike Basketball, and my favourite thing as a consumer, is that I don’t feel as if Nike is constantly shoving their products down my throat. I feel as if Nike isn’t only a brand, but it’s a lifestyle. Its campaigning and relation to regular people, like myself, motivate me to get out and get active (in my Nike runners). That’s why Nike is so successful. It promotes its products in a way where I do not feel like just a “consumer” but I feel like an vital participant in the Nike Brand. Just Do It- The Nike Way.
