Nike Case Study - Microsoft Advertising

Nike Case Study
Nike and MSN Launch Pan-European Online
Football Game
MSN worked with Nike to engage consumers with the Nike
Olé football campaign in the run up to Euro 2004. This
exclusive online initiative formed part of Nike’s broader
integrated media campaign devised to communicate Nike’s
overall football positioning while showcasing Nike products.
‘‘Nike’s objective with this campaign
was to reach out to our target audience
in a new way and allow them to fully
interact with the brand. The Instant
Messenger deal matched our objectives
to online’s capabilities, creating
an excellent solution.’’
David Indo, Media Director,
Nike Europe.
Global brands, like Nike, are increasingly recognising the
power of online to reach audiences at a pan-European and
global level simultaneously in areas separate to their own
web content.
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
Nike and MSN created a unique online football game
tailored to the MSN Messenger platform. The game was
based on the highly successful advanced multiplayer
football game on
The MSN Ole game went live across 11 European markets
on 10 June for three months and was promoted by
targeted marketing across the MSN network. Promotion of
the game was also supported by MSN Hotmail, MSN
Messenger and MSN Today advertisements (varied per
country).
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United
Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and The
Netherlands were all involved with this initiative. The Nike
campaign delivered significant cost and resource
efficiencies.
As a global sports brand, Nike identified its target audience
as the youth market and wanted a compelling solution to
effectively reach its audience. Youth is a competitive arena
and Nike saw MSN as the ideal medium to communicate
with its target market, as MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger
offer advertisers access to a huge European youth
audience:
- MSN Hotmail, for instance, has over 8.5 m unique users
in Europe between the ages of 18 and 24 (MSN Internal
Data, July 2004). In the UK this age group nearly
accounts for over 25% of the entire hotmail account
base. (MSN Internal Data, July 2004).
- 26% of European MSN Instant Messenger users fall into
the 18 – 24 age group. (MSN Internal Data, July 2004).
OBJECTIVE
‘‘The MSN Instant Messenger
project has been one of
our easier deployments’’
Emily Brew,
Digital Brand Director,
Nike Europe.
Nike wanted an innovative solution to be able to deliver an
effective campaign simply across multiple markets. The
main objective was to drive awareness of the Nike football
game and effectively engage its target audience with the
themes of the wider Ole campaign across key markets in
Europe.
CREATIVES
‘‘The project we have undertaken with
Nike clearly reinforces MSN’s
one-stop-shop ability to plan, implement and
execute multi-country campaigns from a central
The game was played via MSN Messenger and based on
the
advanced
multiplayer
football
game
on
www.nikefootball.com, which features some of the world’s
top players, including Thierry Henry, Ronaldo, Luis Figo,
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Francesco Totti and Roberto Carlos.
point. The project has proven simple to implement
across multiple markets and it demonstrates how
digital marketing can be used creatively to
meet a customers campaign objectives on a
multi country basis. Through working with
MSN Messenger, Nike is able to take
The Nike Olé game was a peer-to-peer application, which
could be played only on MSN Messenger with users being
able to invite friends to join through the conversations they
hold.
advantage of MSN’s user base and engage
a huge audience with their
football message.’’
Chris Dobson, General Manager
Digital Marketing Sales
and Trade Marketing,
MSN International.
RESULTS
MSN surpassed Nike’s objectives significantly and Nike
were delighted with the results.
The Nike campaign generated impressive trade coverage in
six European markets:
MSN INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE
MSN PR and Nike created a buzz due to the
uniqueness of this deal
United Kingdom
New Media Age
10th June 2004
MSN lance un jeu de foot en ligne en exclusivité avec Nike
MSN vient juste de lancer le jeu de football 3D développé par Nike, baptisé "Olé" (conformément à l'actuelle
campagne de pub menée par la marque au swosh au niveau international) sur MSN Messenger. Le jeu, dont la
version originale est disponible sur www.nikefootball.com, a été adapté afin de pouvoir utiliser de manière optimale
les fonctionnalités de communication de MSN Messenger. Afin d'assurer la promotion de "Olé" le jeu, une campagne
de pub ciblée est difusée sur l’ensemble du réseau MSN, en France donc mais aussi en Belgique, au Danemark, en
Finlande, en Norvège, en Suède, au Royaume-Unis, en Allemagne, en Espagne, en Italie et au Pays-Bas.
For regional sale enquiries, please email
[email protected] or contact Mark Charkin
(European Regional Sales Manager) on
0207 434 6457