Creating Tribal Ideas for Generation C – my Nokia World presentation

Creating Tribal Ideas for Generation C

Here’s the presentation I gave last week in Stuttgart Germany at Nokia World. They asked me to come and present on how brands are using social media to connect with youth. I spoke mainly about the many different dimensions of Generation C and how social media is shaping their self identity. I also spoke about the key principals brand behaviours you need to adopt when tryign to create a tribal idea – an idea which sparks a rapid mobilisaiton of youth. Click through to slideshare and check the ‘notes pages’ for all my speaker notes which explain some of the points if the images aren’t clear. Had a great time at Nokia World and will be blogging on it this week.

Feedback welcome

Create an ‘Avitar’ for Adidas’ 60th anniversary online dress up party

Adidas Originals are celebrating their 60th birthday party and the Australian team has created quite a cool little online experience, an online dress up party, where you can create an ‘Avitar’, choose cool Adidas orginals clothing to dress up in, upload your pic and groove to some tunes. The main hook is a chance to hang with celebrity photographer Mark ‘Cobrasnake’ Hunter in LA. I like the idea, pretty well excuted online, although I think it’s a little behind the times given about 20 youth brands have done avatar/create your own character type ideas in the past two years…eg: Simpsonize Me. Having said that, I think Aussie youth, especially those ‘indies’ like my 16yr old

Create your Aditar at their 60th anniversary online dress up party

buddy Harry will get into this idea.  A bit of fun.

Adidas gets kids running at Espace Animation – Roland Garros 2009 kids event

All the tennis Grand Slams have kids corners, areas where kids can go and hangout while their parents are watching the long matches. At the Australian Open this year, Nintendo had a cool Wii tent. I’ve just gotten back from Roland Garros in Paris and the standout at ‘Espace Animation’ (kids zone) was Adidas. 

 

Adidas' kids running race event at Roland Garros French Open, May 09

To promote their lightweight ’speedy’ Adidas Barricade tennis shoes (used by world #4 Novak Djokovic) they created a running event where kids were timed running in a zig zag format. Kids got to run using the Adidas Barricade shoes (see blue shoes kids are wearing) and they were timed. Was a cool little bit of experiential marketing and kids were loving it. Funnily enough, BNP Paribas created a ’sprinters’ running race across the way but it had hardly any kids taking part, unsurprisingly. Overall a nice piece of experiential for kids, not brilliant,  but certainly engaging and a bit of good old fashion fun not relying on gadgetry.

 

A French kid using the supplied Adidas kicks to run the course..times were displayed on the big screen

Inside the Black Jersey – great Adidas sports content

Adidas have recently released ‘Inside the Black Jersey‘  – a 5 part branded content series which provides an intimate portrayal of the team and how they went about clinching the 2008 Grand Slam Tour (beating England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) – only the 3rd time the All Blacks have achieved this feat in their 100 year history. I really like this content, Yes I’m  a massive rugby nut and getting an inside look into the lives of some of their great players was great. It’s a great example of how Adidas’ really focus on the mental side of achievement with their communication and really differentiate from Nike, who are more about the external\physical preparations that goes into winning.

Filmed by a small crew of just three  women, each 10-minute episode follows a different member of the team, including ‘The Captain’, ‘The Rookie’, ‘The Character’, ‘The Coaches’ and ‘The Playmaker’. The first of these follows skipper Richie McCaw in the lead up to the opening game against Scotland – McCaw discusses how the team’s training schedule is structured, what the boys in black do to unwind as well as what the all black jersey means to him. This, along with the second episode and a promotional trailer for the series, can be viewed at adidas.tv.

http://www.adidas.tv/?channel=Rugby

It’s interesting to see that Adidas creates content which really gives people an intimate and close up look into the mind of the players and team culture whereas one could argue Nike’s approach to content is to glorify the players via big budget ads around their skills. I like the fact that Adidas really focus on getting inside the head of the player…it’s a nice angle on the ‘Impossible is Nothing’ brand idea. Nike still kicks Adidas’ butt in terms of developing branded utility (eg: Nike Bootcamp training tools) but in my view Adidas is making more real and interesting content for fans.

Adidas’ Urban Art Guide App for Berlin – more street cred for zie German wunderbrand

Adidas' latest branded utility - the urban art guide for Berlin

I’ve been talking about one of the key rules for youth brands being ‘DO STUFF before you say stuff’, well Adidas already has way more street culture cred than Nike or Puma via their Originals range,  but they’ve now come up with a cool app which consolidates that position, in German anyway. They’ve created the Adidas Urban Art Guide to Berlin which lists all the top graffiti locations in the city.

Users download the application for free, giving them access to a Google map of Berlin that’s pegged with the locations of its urban art masterpieces. The map can be navigated in several ways: “Find artworks nearby” provides users with a map of art works in their immediate vicinity; “Tour guide” calls up a curated walking tour of local urban art; and “Gallery” gives users the option to browse the city’s street art and then seek out their favourite pieces. Users can click on each marked location to call up images as well as information about the piece, the artist and further references.

The app’s interactive elements including rating and commenting functionalities, and letting users upload their own snaps of new art, which keeps the map cutting-edge at no extra cost to Adidas. Berlin is currently the only city on the Urban Art Guide’s map, but I imagine it’ll be in NYC, London, Tokyo soon.

 Smart move on behalf of Adidas, getting the brand straight into the hands of its target audience, while reaffirming its street credentials and delivering real brand utility.

Adidas ‘Mix It Up’ collection via Footlocker…cool idea

Adidas 'Mix It Up' collection with Footlocker...

As usual the boys at Adidas North America are creating culture in the urban streetwear arena. They’ve just launched the adidas Mix It Up collection which will be a killer with American youth. Adidas has teamed up with Footlocker for exclusive distribution of the kicks, and MTV who will be the exclusive media partner distributing all the content. 

 

The Mix It Up Collection is all about nailing Adidas’ cred as the ‘Original’ in urban streetwear – via interpreting the seminal music styles of Hip-Hop, Dance and Rock music to celebrate 60 years of originality. It taps into the ‘mashing’ trend which is massive with Gen C so kids can ‘mash’ together an outfit and sneaks to create their own individual look. One could say this campaign is a year or so behind the trends, but hey, it’s still cool.