Nike+ is a platform that allows you to keep track of your performance, using a chip in your Nike+ shoe and iPod. The running community had been a success in most of Europe, but uptake in Spain had been disappointing. The country ranked lowest in terms of European registration. Hard core runners considered the Nike+ tool too "commercial and did not feel it was "serious enough" for them. All marketing efforts were focused on recruiting this target until early 2009, which explains the lack of registration. Secondly, the more casual runners were not aware of Nike+ or didn't understood the shoe/ipod/web chip functionalities
Nike needed to engage and educate a broader running target for whom the sociability tools would have more appeal.
For a few, running is a passion. For others it is an addiction. For most runners though - the casual runners - running is a means to an end. Casual runners can get bored sometimes and would run more if it were fun or if their friends were there to challenge them. Nike decided to play on the rivalry between men and women in what the brand called Ring, Ring! Run, Run! The aim was to encourage people to get their friends to wake up and go running. Nike invited radio listeners to nominate friends for a live unprompted wake-up call with famous Nike elite athletes in four cities.
Camera crews, Nike athletes, friends and listeners all gathered in front of the lazy friend's house at 7 a.m. Once they woke up, the runner was asked to lace up and start clocking up the kilometres in the men vs. women challenge. Nike partnered with Spain's largest multi-platform media group 40 Principales, which is heavily connected with music.
The concept was kick-started in social media with a viral campaign involving videos of celebrities being woken up. And a teaser inviting people to go to specific wake-up locations. A deal with the highest rated morning show Anda Ya amplified the campaign. The presenters generated interest in the concept by requesting nominations for the next wake up call victim from their listening audience, and by announcing where the wake up call would take place in advance and ensured hundreds of people turning out at the house of the victim to join him/her in their morning run. To generate further value out of this media asset, Nike created 10 minute micro-programmes for TV and online.
The viral campaign received 80,000 views even before the first wake-up call and 10,500 people joined Nike+. Awareness of Nike+ increased by 62%, 9% points above 20% target. Spain sprinted from last place to first place in terms of registering for the challenge ranking as the top country globally.