Adidas taking the Stage.

April has seen the launch of the latest Adidas campaign to tie in with the countdown to London 2012. The campaign, which has the tagline "Take the stage", is one of the most unique for a sports brand in that it is pursuing the idea of User Generated Content (UGC) as a key element of the campaign. Take the stage is using major stars from the sports and entertainment fields to encourage Adidas followers to embrace the brand.Featuring Team GB athletes Victoria Pendleton, Louis Smith and Tom Daley alongside entertainment stars such Wretch 32, Bashy, Example and comedian Keith Lemon, the narrative of the adverts tells the story of how you can go from the top deck of the bus to the top of the charts overnight.The brand is targeting user interaction across the brands diversified areas of Sport, Street and Style. Each one of brands distinct elements is represented by different sporting stars such as David Beckham and Derrick Rose while the UK music scene is represented by Wretch 32. 

Keith Lemon and Victoria Pendleton

In 2011 the brand launched an initiative called Adistars which was designed to encourage sports participation and reward 13-19 year olds who get involved with a myriad of prizes such as personalised messages from adidas ambassadors and opportunities to attend sporting events and meet with the likes of David Beckham. The rewards were based on the completion or mastering of specific tasks around the area of fitness such as speed, skill, stamina, strength and suppleness. Those taking part had access to the Adistar website which had video editing tools where participants could create films of their challenges to share with friends on the website as well as to their wider community on Facebook.

Adistars was an early version of the brands attempts at UGC which they are continuing with their "Take the stage" promotion. UGC is one of the key evolution's associated with the rise of the internet and social media.  The advent of user-generated content marked a shift among media organizations from creating online content to providing facilities for amateurs to publish their own content. User generated content is a two-way process in contrast to the one-way which existed prior to the growth of the internet with an ever-growing number of participatory users are taking advantage of the interactive opportunities, especially on the Internet to create independent content. UGC has enabled the growth of Facebook,Twitter and Youtube with various brands using these emerging marketing tools to gain a foothold with their fan base. 

Adidas is one of the most successful brands using social media at present. On Facebook it presently holds the number one sports brand with facebook.com/adidasoriginals currently having just under 14 million fans and over 200,000 people talking about the brand on a regular basis. It has a 0.1% daily fan growth compared to the average fan growth of 0.08%. The monthly average fan growth is just below average at 2.45% compared to most brands average growth of 2.5% growth. The most recent peaks in fans talking about the brand occurred in conjunction with the launch of the "Take the stage" advertising campaign. Their official Twitter page, @adidasoriginal, has been active for over 3 years and has just over 200,000 followers which is slightly behind the other leading sports brand on this social channel. On a daily basis it gains nearly twice as many followers, 0.24%, than the average brand, 0.14%, with its monthly growth, 9.87%, well ahead of the monthly average, 4.2%, for other brands on Twitter. The brand's Youtube channel is slightly behind the averages in certain areas in comparison to other brands. Its weekly viewership growth, 1.67%, is below the average, 2.23%, for other brands while its monthly viewing average, 1.67%, is also behind the monthly average, 2.27%, for brands. One area where it does out perform ahead of others is in the number of views of uploaded videos at just over 12.6 million views of videos on their channels.

Their most recent campaign, "Take the stage", is encouraging fans to upload content onto its main webpage with a view to winning the chance to meet sports stars such as Derrick Rose and David Beckham. Collaborations with sports figures have long been a method of effectively influencing audiences on what’s cool and what’s not. Sports collaborations between an athlete or a sports team with a brand or company, like other channels, have adapted and incorporated the digital aspects of the ever changing marketing landscape to remain effective. 
To win a chance to meet  MVP and star of the Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, and play ball with him in Chicago fans.

David Beckham is giving competitors the chance to come on a photo shoot with him where they will meet David and have the chance to photograph him and work with him in the studio. 

Wretch 32 is giving competitors a chance to open for him on Tour later this year. 

The winner of the competition will get a chance to open for him at one of his gigs and also meet the man himself. To enter any of the competitions competitors need to upload a video or photograph to the Adidas  main site and ensure that their video is in the top 10 most liked at the end of the competition. From there, Adidas, Beckham, Rose and Wretch 32 choose the competition winner. The benefit of having a cross platform competition like this ensures that the brand is not isolating itself from any particular fan base and it also showcases the brands many uses.


The potential of social media and sports brands is still being exploited. "Take the stage" is one of many user generated competitions that different brands have chosen to pursue in recent years. UGC competitions enabled brands to produce content that will appeals to both users and potential users of their products or services. The tie in potential that London 2012 offers sports brands such as Adidas and Nike is very unique in that the event is being sold on the idea of creating a legacy that will exist for decades to come. As "take the stage" implies this event is offering people and brands the opportunity to leave their mark on the public's consciousness in the lead up to the biggest sporting event of 2012.  

The Hunter and Bear: An Unconventional Friendship

Hunter and Bear

This week two friends decided to celebrate a birthday in the same way as most people do, by having a birthday party with cake and candles but when these two friends are a hunter and a bear then you can imagine it would not be a normal celebration. 18 months on from their successful viral video campaign Tipp-ex have returned with their latest video that focuses on the adventures of the hunter and the bear. The original video was a massive success online, winning numerous awards for the digital agency behind the video thanks to the video's innovative nature and the ability for the user to change the outcome of the ad.

It all started with a video titled "A hunter shoots a bear" which was part of the "Tippexperience" campaign which was run by French based digital agency Buzzman on behalf of the German owned correction fluid company. In the original video which can be seen below, the hunter is startled by the bear rumbling around his tent and he is encouraged to shoot the bear by the camera man. The viewer is then prompted to either "shoot bear"or "don't shoot bear" with both decisions leading to the same screen with Tipp-ex branding and ads featuring prominently. 

The hunter then breaks the forth wall and tells the viewers that he does not want to shoot the bear and instead reaches out of the video to grab the white out pocket mouse that could be seen in the ads beside the video. Using the Tipp-Ex products to "white out" the part of the video title, the hunter then encourages the viewers to rewrite the story by entering key words or phrases that would lead them to a conclusion video. If the words or phrases they entered have no corresponding video they were brought to a comedic 404 page error video.

First example of the interactive Annotation of the "Tippexperience"

                       The Hunter "whiting out" the word "Shoots"

The functionality behind the actual Tippexperience youtube channel showcased the innovation and creativity that has taken precedent in modern digital marketing. The first video lets the user decide how the story should go on, already giving the impression that this is something interactive and that the user can direct the story. Both options available to the users lead them to the Tipp-ex Youtube takeover page. It is just a layer that gives the impression of a regular YouTube video. This innovation is part of an advanced part of Youtube's operation called annotation. YouTube annotations is an effective tool for creating videos that are engaging, interactive, informative and entertaining. Annotations can be used by digital marketing companies to initiate a dialog with your viewers, call upon them to take action and get higher levels of engagement. When used correctly annotations can improve viewership and grow the brands audience. 

Tippexpererience, as mentioned previously, was a massive success for the the Tipp-ex brand with the campaign quickly becaming a worldwide viral phenomenon, amassing over 35 million views within the first 100 days of launching. It went on to win various awards such as Digital and Interactive Bronze at New York Festival, 2010 Ad Age award for Best Interactive Video Campaign and also a Gold in Web and a Silver in online film, media innovation and alternative media (France)2010 at the Epica Awards.From a consumer interactive perspective the video was a great success for the brand. In the first 36 hours alone the Teaser video had over 1 million view and was Shared over 100, 000 times on Facebook and 7, 500 times on Twitter. In the proceeding 36 hours the ad  had a Virality rate of 5000 % (each user send the link to 5 people on average) with an average time spend with the brand of 6 minutes. The company has estimated that the equilivant media coverage would have cost the company over €5 million if they want to gain the same traction.

Earlier this week Tippexperience season 2 was launched with the focus this time being on the users ability to rewrite history instead of just the story.The  story this season takes place at the Bear's birthday bash in 2012 where the Hunter and bear are faced with an earth-destroying meteor in the sky above them. The annotation begins by offering the user a choice between either ending  the party or keep it going. Once more using the Tipp-ex whiteout the hunter encourages the users to interact with the video by choosing a different year to continue the party in with 46 different scenarios available. There are also Easter eggs scattered throughout the choices.Since its launch on the 12th of April the videos have been viewed over 5 million times already with nearly 17000 subscriptions to the channel.

The Hunter "Whiting out" the year 2012.

Hunter and bear's -1000 birthday party with social media channels clearly displayed throughout.

Within its first week the "Tippexperience 2" viral has already been a great success for the creators, Buzzmann, and the parent company Tipp-ex. The annotation used in the original "Tippexperience", as mentioned above, brought the brand closer to the public which for any company is one of the key reason for pursuing any form of digital marketing. The innovation and interactivity which is afforded by the use of Youtube annotation is one of the biggest benefits to modern brands as it enables them to make a connection with both current users and potential users. 

An Irish Flashmob

Where's Wally Flash Mob.

In our last Blog entry, Saint Patrick's Day: March 17th Marketing Madness, we went into some detail about the various digital and viral activities around the Saint Patrick's period. These included the "greening" of various historical landmarks around the world by Tourism Ireland, the various social media campaigns by Guinness, Jameson and Baileys, and the Sydney Irish dancing flash mob. This flash mob went on to become one of the major success stories for Tourism Ireland's Saint Patrick's global advertising campaigns. As was discussed in the blog entry the flash mob became a viral sensation and was well received  by the viral marketing community. In the last number of years, flash mobs have become one of the defacto means of attaining viral success at a minimum cost. Although popular in the USA and mainland Europe, for amateurs and professionals alike,the flash mob has not been fully embraced in Ireland but there have been some examples of its application here over the last number of years.

Bill Wasik

The concept of the flash mob has been credited to Bill Wasik who was the senior editor of Harper's Magazine at the time. The first one was organised in 2003 but had initial teething problems such as the targeted store being tipped off about the event in advance. To avoid any leaking of information, on the second attempt, Wasik used a preliminary staging area for participants where they would receive further instructions. The second attempt, with its additional staging precautions, was a massive success both from an operational perspective and for generating buzz around the principle idea. The principle behind Wasik's flash mob idea was to highlight the need for certain groups to be seen as insiders or part of the next big thing. The mobs started as a kind of playful social experiment meant to encourage spontaneity and big gatherings to temporarily take over commercial and public areas simply to show that they could. 

In an age where user generated content is king, the ability to arrange an almost ready made viral video has enabled marketers and organisations to latch onto something that is very volatile if not present properly. Here are some examples of some Irish related flash, some you will have seen and some you wish you had.

One of the most well known Irish related flash mobs at present was mentioned in our previous blog entry around the Saint Patrick's day viral activity.The video was made in conjunction with tourism Ireland and Sneaky Steppers from Australia who surprised Commuters in Central Station in Sydney Australia by  performing Irish  dancing in front of them. The flash mob starts off quietly enough before ending up with 100 people performing the Riverdance routine in a grand finale. By the end of March of 2011 the video was in the top 10 most viewed videos on the Contagious Viral chart. 

This year the group focused on the Canadian market place but once more chose to use a flash mob to appeal to the on line communities. A singing and dancing flash mob at Yonge-Dundas Square kick-started Toronto into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. While people ate lunch on restaurant patios and walked around the area on Friday, the music for Snow Patrol’s song Chasing Cars starts playing and a woman, accompanied by a guitar player, starts singing it for the crowd.It’s not long before another singer joins in on the fun and it becomes apparent to the crowd what’s happening: it’s a flash mob.As more people occupy the square, the flash mob breaks into Van Morrison’s Brown-Eyed Girl. Although not as viral as the 2011 effort yet the potential is still there with it currently having over 50,000 views on youtube.

One of the most recent flash mobs seen on the streets of Dublin in the last month was done for political reasons, to highlight one political parties. The Francesca Arkins School of Dance and Stage join Sinn Féin on Dublin's Mary Street in a 'flash mob' against youth unemployment and mass emigration in Ireland - to the tune of Calvin Harris' Acceptable in the 80s.

The ability of the flash mob to assess how people/society react to situations both real/hypothetical can not be underestimated as with it you gain an understanding of how people/cultures work. As part of Galway Samaritans 24/7 Awareness Day, Samaritan Volunteers, IBM Employees and lots of energetic Friends surprised people on the street with a Zumba Flash mob, bringing smiles to the faces of everyone around them. The event aimed to promote awareness of the helpline which is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week providing emotional support to anyone experiencing feelings of distress or despair.

Another flash mob from 2011 highlights both the spontaneity and organisation that goes into bringing together a memorable event. In October, 2011, hundreds of people from choirs all from all over the country joined forces to sing the Hallelujah Chorus in front of unsuspecting shoppers who were in the Dundrum Town center. The flash mob was the grand finale of RTÉ Big Music Week and was organised by RTÉ Radio 1.

Two further videos showcase how two different brands in Ireland used the flash mob idea to great effect to showcase the launch of new products. As part of the Guinness 250 celebrations, two hundred and fifty 'Paul O'Connell' fans converged in Dublin in an attempt to recreate the now legendary 'Have you put the fear of God in them' speech ahead of Ireland's 6 Nations clash with England. 

While Sony Music Ireland amassed a large gathering of Gleeks to coincide with the launch of "Glee: The Music - Vol 2". Completely different usages of the medium in Ireland but both have received large numbers of views on youtube. 

An unique example of a flash mob from last year was the one to launch a world record attempt for the most people dressed as "Where's Wally" in one location. 150 Flash-Mobbing Wally’s took over the Luas on April 1st 2011 to launch the Street Performers World Championships (SPWC) and the ‘Where’s Wally World Record’ which took place took place at their 2011 event.

World Record Where's Wally attempt Dublin 2011

The most recent example of the medium being used as a social experiment can be seen in viral video Caine's Arcade. The principle idea behind the mob was to reward a young arcade entrepreneur by getting him some customers for his cardboard arcade. Since the video of the mob was released over the weekend a scholarship fund for the star of the video has surpassed the $100,000 mark. 

Caine Monroy 

The flash mob, if used properly, can be a great medium to get across a companies ideas or a social message.   In the case of the mob that took place in Galway it was to promote the Samaritans, Guinness to launch their 250th anniversary celebrations and Sony used the medium to promote the a new CD release.In Ireland the application of the flash mob is still a developing tool. Although many observers believe that its use is becoming passe with many of the above showing the dance arrangements as the main focus of the mob. The Guinness and Caine's arcade examples show that there are still other applications of flash mobs that can still be applied in Ireland to promote an ideal or cause that can still have an impact on a saturated market place.