Nike Golf: Distorting Tradition
Situation / Opportunity:
The Nike golf clubs equipment business was extremely volatile. Nike was not #1 and consumers tended to be very loyal to their favorite club brands. While Nike is known for constant innovation, we failed to achieve great success in golf club innovation that invited consumers to try new golf clubs or switch to the Nike brand from their credible favorites. However, Nike Golf was in reset mode and we saw an opportunity to ignite our golf business with a new focus on respecting the past, yet creating the future of golf by using best practices that had been used for sneaker launches. We unlocked away to use a similar model that was used for sneaker launches to our launch of the new innovative Nike Vapor golf clubs..
Action:
Started with our focus on the consumer muse, the Modern Golf Athlete. These were consumers who were most influential in the sport, younger and with a mindset that respected the traditions of the game, but was not afraid to also try some thing new. They were also into style and very accustomed to sneaker launches. The key strategies included scarcity, influencers, media and e-commerce digital distribution, sport moments and brand communications. A limited supply of a products were seeded to highly influential athletes, coaches and green grass golf shops for trial. A media event was created feating Jimmy Fallon, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy along with the 2 athletes appearing on The Tonight Show with a fun product showcase and story telling about the product technology. Immediately following the PR blitz from the show, we launched a select amount of clubs for sale at full price on nike.com, which sold out in 1 hour. Then we launched TV spots featuring the products during The Masters.
Result:
Led a digital conversation before the moment and went broad:
Digital Views: 8.8MM
Impressions: 18.6MM
Overall Engagements: +12%