By Dana Hashem
You can tell that a PR campaign is a good one when it infiltrates your daily grind. That’s exactly what happened to me this week, when I was persuaded to take a friend’s place on a Nike Training Club session...in a pod on the London Eye.
As a profoundly un-sporty person, the notion that I’d be bench-pressing in an iconic British landmark on a Wednesday evening would have seemed ludicrous to me this time last week. But somehow, I suddenly found myself getting involved – and what’s more, I was a convert to the cause.
In essence, the idea behind Nike’s takeover of the Eye was to inspire women to make the most of the extra Leap Year day and take a positive step towards improving their fitness. The stunt was part of Nike’s wider #makeitcount campaign (which, incidentally, had already crept into my life when my cousin relayed the tale of having his photo taken in a Nike store and then projected onto screens at Westfield Stratford) and echoed the call to set ambitious personal goals during 2012 – the year of the London Olympics.
Now, it was word of mouth – that holy grail of PR tools – that persuaded me to give the training session a go, but Nike’s mighty communications machine had certainly been whirring away in the background to get me to that point. The event was heavily publicised through the Nike Training Club UK Facebook page, where competition for places was fierce and sharing of posts was rife. Excitement was also building on Twitter, where references to the #makeitcount campaign were adding to the hype.
The impact of the stunt itself was impressive. Bathed in vibrant green light toned to match Nike’s branding for the #makeitcount campaign, the Eye could be seen for miles around – and was a spectacle that even prompted comment from a passer-by as I headed down to the training session. With a run-by from Nike’s running club and a game of basketball in play on the balcony of County Hall, it was plain to see that something was going on – and wherever I turned, people were talking about it.
Since making it back down from the top of the Eye in one piece, I’ve discovered that Nike’s #makeitcount campaign has been giving its rival and Olympic sponsor Adidas a run for its money. Research carried out by BrandWatch shows that Nike is dominating conversations about the Olympics on the internet, with 7.7 percent of the conversations associated with the brand. Adidas, meanwhile, is trailing behind with a paltry 0.49 percent of conversations – a painful statistic when you consider that the price it paid to be the official Olympic sponsor was reportedly £100m. Just goes to show that the power of PR can outstrip that of advertising if you’ve got a great idea and the means to roll it out...
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