Nike Feels Pretty!

How much "return on CGM" did Nike receive off the Maria Sharapova "I Feel Pretty" ad aired on many occasions during the US Open?  Equally important, how much "talk value" did the ad generate relative to other US Open spots, and why?  These are important questions because CGM is increasingly play a de facto "auditing" role of advertising effectiveness and word-of-mouth.  Consumers increasingly leave a digital trail, a "brand residue," in venues where they can easily and effortlessly express themselves: message boards, forums, online communities, social-network sites, and especially blogs.  Often, this digital trail reinforces (or negates)  the effectiveness of offline advertisings, especially TV ads.  Through the return-on-investment (ROI) lens, the more favorable CGM a brand receives, the more the average cost per impression goes down.

Nike Feels Pretty: The good news for Nike (full disclosure: a client, although I have no involvement with this campaign) is that the very clever "I Feel Pretty" spot -- whereby a long cast of characters sing portions of West Side Story's famous song while Maria Sharapova leaves her hotel for a tennis match -- generated an unprecedented amount of online conversation and buzz: on blogs, boards, YouTube, MySpace, and in many other places.  Importantly, as you can see in the BlogPulse chart, there were a significant number of posts that explicitly referenced key elements of he ad.  This, in my view, is a leading indicator of so-called "engagement."  

Conversational "Talk Drivers" - Know Them:  What works particularly well for this ad is that there are so many entertaining and subtle "talk drivers." Conversation definitely plays back the details, and this is a big reason why CGM analysis is so critical to understand the effectiveness of Super Bowl commercials.   Even in informal offline conversation, I've heard folks critique the specific characters, replay John McEnroe's reaction, and describe the wacky head of hair on one of hotel workers (see image to the left).  Understanding how such drivers catalyze or extend conversations is part of the new art of marketing; it's also how we need to think about customer service; little things get noticed, and in turn drive conversation.  Fortunately, for Nike, and their agency Weiden & Kennedy, most of the brand's ad copy manages to "jump the shark" to the online space because it consistently has details or elements or "kicker" endings that provoke buzz.

Benchmarking Campaigns:  Looking ahead, I envision more agencies being rewarded and compensated based on the extent to which their ad copy manages to infiltrate or extend into the CGM space.  We'll pay attention to not only ad copy spillover, but also the effectiveness and "talk value" of any spokesperson's associated with the brand.  For example, sponsors clearly invested heavily against both Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick, but Sharapova received significantly more playback in the context of the sponsoring brand, Nike, than Roddick with American Express.  Then again, the story is yet to be fully told. The "Stop Pong" website associated with the Roddick spot may well keep that campaign in play longer than realize.  At the end of the day, the CGM flow can provide a wealth of insight into TV advertising effectiveness.  Did my copy generate buzz? Was it positive? Where was it discussed, and by whom? What specifically did viewers like? Was the ad viral, and, if so, what prompted the desire to share? If I didn't receive squat on the buzz front, why, and is it time to have a heart-to-heart with my agency? 

This is why I like my job so much.  :-)