Adidas wrapped up a viral, podcasting campaign that is an interesting expression of targeting a niche audience and hoping the word spreads. It takes a chance, walking the line between being too ‘edgy’ and not risky enough, but I think it is a step in the right direction nonetheless. Today’s brands need to build their brand as a citizen brand, and take chances to illicit real and meaningful feedback in order to be truly effective in selling product & engaging a larger audience.
Roger Wong has the scoop:
…Adidas puts their own spin to this concept by commissioning shorts from hip young directors, with only one parameter: Tell the story of a color.
However, instead of throwing up a website that consolidated all the shorts, Adidas created a video podcast that you could subscribe to get updates as these were released serially. The first, “White“, started the series in late March, and the last, “Black“, ended it in early May. Each url was the RGB value for the color. ………. Oh and another interesting thing about this campaign: Not once is Adidas mentioned on the sites or in the shorts. Of course if you’re an Adidas freak, you’d know that these refer to the color-it-yourself Adicolor shoes from the 1980s, but otherwise you’re left to do your own investigation as to what Adicolor is http://www.adidas.com/us/adicolor/.
This is an interesting strategy & really integrates well with the types of things the Adidas evangelist customers are into online. The vip and underground aspect rings through loud and clear & I applaud the use of podcasting, serial releases (content rich), and the emotional and sensory tie-in with the 80’s brand.
But the URL’s as RGB values? Hmmm… It sounds like a cool underground tactic, but I’d only go there if it was truly integrated & user friendly – e.g. the links are integrated heavily with del.icio.us tags, technorati tags, Google, etc. etc. Making your customers work that hard to get to your content is never a good idea, even when they are the with-it crowd.
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