November 30th, 2009
Nike has been relevant and will continue to be relevant for their brand and all the sports that they encompass. For over 3 years now they have had a Runner’s Station in New York City on the west side highway – a part of their hyperlocal RunNYC campaign. While others may have known about this, for me this is a first considering I started running again after a 10 year hiatus.
The Nike Runner’s Station is a small 1970′s-style shack, full of trail, community and product information. There’s water, Gatorade, sports bars and sports gel all for the weary runner to purchase. The best part about the Nike Runner’s Station is that there is an assortment of Nike running shoes that you can “trial”. Any athlete knows that the true test of a piece of performance gear is in the field and what better way for a runner to find the perfect shoe than to take it on the course they most frequent.
The station attendant was really knowledgable and helpful, delving into my level of engagement. He gave me critical information to the station – it’s only open from July to November with yesterday being the last day it was open. He even showed me a trail that he used to run that would be great for me to follow based on where I live.
There was also a computer on site for any online queries and connections I woudlve have wanted to make, like looking up more about the Nike Run Connect shoes and iPod widget that shares your running stats with your social networks. I didn’t want to look into it further right then because I just wanted to get back to running.
All in all the Nike Runner’s Station is possibly one of the best niche hyperlocal branded popup shops I’ve ever seen. Leave it to a leader in a category to show the competition how it’s done. Take note and think outside the box like Nike did.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
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October 26th, 2009
A necessary and brilliant move, Apple has added suggestions to their receipt to give a valid call to action. The only problem is the suggestions are based on what others who bought my selections also bought. While this is helpful in giving more suggestions I’d actually like suggestions based on what I bought that’s relevant to me.
Semantic technology may still be in it’s infancy but relevancy can be given based on many other factors. I personally don’t need an app to view my pet pictures on my Mac remotely (Clarus), a separate app to read a blog (Pali Research), and I certainly don’t need to track my neuroses (SymTrend). If Apple knew me they’d know that I don’t have a pet, am reading my blogs via my6sense now and have overcome neuroses long ago.
Tagging is a very simple technology that is successfully implemented by many brands. Foursquare has taken descriptive tagging to another level by crowd sourcing this task and rewarding for levels of input. If the ‘Give Work’ app was properly tagged it would’ve been able to suggest other apps that are similar in the social good, social change categories and crowd sourcing categories. I would even accept most recently added app suggestions, most popular in category, or even what other users in my area downloaded [which they can do because they have my address].
Suggestions are a step forward but these aren’t enough for me. For now I’ll keep archiving my iTunes receipts so I can search through my download history, as Apple doesn’t allow you to do that easily. If apps like my6sense can learn my preferences then surely a large company with vast resources like Apple can figure out how to do the same.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: action, address, address suggestions, app, Apple, apps, area, aren, blog, blogs, brilliant move, call, category, change, change categories, Clarus, company, crowd, database, doesn, download, email, Foursquare, history, infancy, input, iTunes, level, Mac, move, neuroses, Pali, pet, pet pictures, problem, receipt, receipts, relevancy, Research, Semantic, sense, simple technology, step, store, Suggestions, SymTrend, tagging, task, technology, the, vast resources, Work
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