When it comes to Social Media Marketing, Nike takes its own advice. They just do it. And they do it big.
They recently hired Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu to create a three-minute World Cup commercial that was immediately posted to YouTube. In a matter of hours the elaborate video had received some 19,000,000 views. The viral power of this few minutes of film was lauded as a stroke of Social Media genius. Three weeks later, the Nike video was shrouded in controversy and rabbit-foot-stroking superstition.
Every soccer superstar featured in the commercial had been ignominiously removed from the tournament. Was the three-minute extravaganza cursed or was it simply bone-headed? I’m saying neither. Vetting high-profile athletes in a commercial has never been a risk-free enterprise. They are hot and then they are not. But it is why a commercial like this gets so much attention.
The irony in all this is that the subject of the Nike video was the fleetingness of fame and how victory and rock-stardom can crumble on the field with one interception or deflected goal. Does any of this impugn Nike’s use of Social Media? Not at all. In fact, Nike should be applauded for doing what they have always done so well: embracing the media and embracing their target.
