Striking World Cup Buzz With CGM

Increasingly, brands are stepping up the plate to participate in so-called "conversations" with consumers.  Often, they are using major "events" as the catalyst and context for this new form of dialogue.  Big events rarely reflect the cookie-cutter mold of marketing 'best practices" -- especially against today's rapidly evolving marketing landscape -- and therefore serve as ripe venues for experimentation.  The FIFA World Cup, officially starting in a few days, is one such event where, like the recent Winter Olympics, we're seeing important forms of branding experimentation, especially those involving the active enrollment and participation of consumers (or, if you really insist....users...or...citizens).   Two very good examples (although it's too early to hoist the "victory" flag) involve Coke and Nike.  (Full disclosure: both are clients in my "official" job at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, although I had no direct association with these campaigns.)

Coke Blogger Flat, Not Coke Blak:   Coke, if you'll recall, pushed the envelop a bit during the Winter Olympics with brand sponsored bloggers in the form of "Torino Conversations," which attempted to bring a broader scope of "global" story telling around the Olympics.  As I noted in an earlier ClickZ column,  the exercise brought a "refreshing level of informal conversation to an otherwise highly promotional Web site platform."   Most brands websites, especially the expensive ones, are impenetrably inflexible, and lack the agility and flexibility to groove with the conversation; they not only lack "interactivity" but also any sense of identity, or even -- dare I say -- a "soul."  The Torino experiment was a very good step in the right direction.  This time Coke is sponsoring an even more ambitous effort, and although it's "sponsored by Coke" it appears a bit more liberated from the constraints of "site within a site." The brand is essentially creating an entire program around a community of bloggers and a site entitled WeAllSpeakFootball.com   They have recruited a diverse group of bloggers to blog their hearts delight about their experiences around the FIFA World Cup.  Moreover, they have sponsored a 220 square meter flat (with killer view, the bloggers claim) right smack in the center of Berlin for use by "live" bloggers (and their friends, presumably).   Interestingly, they've enrolled some leading "Vloggers" in European circles, among them Gabriel McIntyre & Gabe Bauer (xolo.tv), Anil de Mello (Mobuzz.tv), and Katharina "Lyssa" Borchert (Lyssa's Lounge).   They are also encouraging anyone interested to fill out an application form to particpate.

Promising, But Too Early To Tell:  Content so far is sparse -- in fairness, the World Cup has yet to "officially" kick off --  but the model looks extremely promising, and the stickiness (and hence CGM potential) of the exercise will depend in large measure on how well the blog "recruits" both mirror what's truly happening in Berlin and strike (pun intended) meaningful conversation among others.  Accepting "comments" around the blog posts seems to be strong focus, and that's clearly a good thing.  The deliberate focus on vlogging is an a very important direction, as the blog has the potential to serve as a de facto TV station for both news and "Reality TV' junkies looking for deeper perspective on unrivaled global event.  While I suppose there's always some danger of what I call the  "Tahoe Regression" (e.g. CGM content sliding outside the brand's intended "acceptability" parameters), the entire context for "WeAllSpeakFootball" feels like a reasonably safe bet.  Looking ahead, what will be interesting is how well the brand leverages the content on an ongoing basis.  Will the content, for example, become the basis for future ad copy, or will it prime the pump for the next big event Coke sponsors. CGM experiements are never easy to predict, and sometimes backfire, but the learning along the road has critical value.

Nike & The CGM Kick:   Nike has kicked up a decent amount of buzz around another World Cup related program, in this case a collaborative "group kick fest" of sorts.  While the brands has a host of promotional programs on the NikeFootball.com site, the one that really caught my eye was Nike's effort to create the "world's longest football video."    Works like this: as with the process on YouTube, users visit a special Nike site and are invited to upload a 15 second video of them kicking or juggling a soccer ball.  There's a catch of course: you must kick from left to right so the long-play video looks like one continuous hand-off.  (Surprisingly, this works to very good effect.)  So far the brand has integrated over 140 "kicks" (from all the world, I might add), the long-play video -- overlayed with a pulsating beat that makes you want to rush to iTunes for immediate song purchase -- is pretty darn engaging, and -- dare I say -- tempting to watch from start to finish.  There are parallels here the value of Wikipedia content. The content seems to improve with each additional kick.  Most importantly, this is a classic user-participation.  It's not "pure" or "unaided" consumer-generated media -- and the brand appears to have editorial discretion over content inclusion --- but it clearly moves toward the "engagement" promise around "the co-creation of meaning."

Ex-Spot Marketing:  In an effort to deepen user "engagenent" and create sticky content, both marketers is drawing from emerging new media tools and publishing formats to nurture more meaningful "conversations," or (let's strip away the idealism for a moment) a digital trail of commentary that indirectly rewards or credits the brand.  It's not overt advertising, and in this case, it's not cookie-cutter sponsorship either; it's "blended" or "nudged" CGM.  Both brands are also seeking (wisely) to exploit what I've referred to as the "Ex-Spot" -- that "moment of experience" where consumers (or in this case, soccer fans) are best positioned to articulate or speak out about something.  Half the game in marketing is about piggybacking momentum, and Coke's blog experiment appears to be capitalizing on the "It's happening NOW, right HERE in Berlin" Ex-Spot. Nike is embracing almost unstoppable "passion" around the game of futbol.  Both brands are also creating alternatives to "traditional" online content.  While the World Cup FIFA site is loaded with excellent content (and unquestionably will receive more hits than any other site), it's overall presentation is somewhat predictable, and lacks a "man on the street" perspective.  There's little to no community on the site, and while it loudly promotes mobile services for score updates, there's no use of RSS for basic content.  The site features plenty of "credentialed" photos from earlier World Cup events, but nothing that even mirrors user-generated FlickR content related to soccer (surprising, since Yahoo is a co-sponsor of the site and leader in social-networking tools).  In effect, the lack of "informal" content has opportunities for sponsors and non-sponsors alike to connect and bond with fans in new ways.  Not to suggest such offering will not unfold over time.  The games are just about begin.  Stay tuned for more commentary and analysis.  - Pete

(Don't forget about the upcoming word-of-mouth marketing conference (WOMMA) in SF later this month - June 20-21. Sign-up details here.) 

Comments

[owen mack]

inteeresting stuff. neat to see the coke effort, especially. still, it strikes me as odd that COKE is doing it. why not adidas? or nike? or someone involved with the sport more directly? when coke (or it's bloggers) creates content related to soccer, the only arguement is that "coke attaches to sport, sporty people drink coke," or "coke supports creativity" or some such. great. but if nike was doing it they'd get a lot more of a direct boost, wouldn't they? still, kudos to coke. there's not much you can say about the product itself, so it has to attach to something. this is a good way to do it.

the most interesting point you bring up is the question of whether coke will leverage the content in other ways. use the imagery created by the bloggers in ads, billboards around town during the series. etc. you'd have to act fast, but hey! that's what it's all about.

the nike example is kinda fun, but i'm really sick of flash, and flash games. i couldn't even stand it long enough to fish around on the site to find the thing. (your link doesn't go to the long kick piece. why? cuz it's flash).

[Meikah]

Football, especially this year's World Cup, has the world glued on the TV sets. And now that Coke and Nike have come up with blogs about FIFA World Cup, netizens who love football would be monitoring the games online. I can feel the World Cup fever as my husband is watching it even if he has to pay EXTRA for it. ~http://custserv.gbwatch.com~

[teena]

Can I share some resources with you?