Hear from New Balance and its agency, Almighty, about how the two worked together to craft an experience that aggregated real-time information -- results, photos, videos, news -- created at a track meet, making it customizable, personal and spreadable. Each competitor's bib was the key to his Facebook network, allowing each athlete to share results with his friends at home.
Presenters: Ian Fitzpatrick, partner, Almighty @ianfitzpatrick
Stacey Howe, director of global digital marketing, New Balance @loverunningmore
DBS: New Balance Case Study: Intersecting Physical and Digital Worlds
1. Hello.
We’re Stacey Howe & Ian Fitzpatrick.
From New Balance & Almighty.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
2. OUR STORY
We’re here because our teams
built the first national
championship event to play out
live in social channels.
It’s a really good story.
3. OUR STORY
You almost never get to watch
brand perceptions change right
in front of you.
4. How could we take ownership of a premiere event from
Nike, and build brand awareness & sentiment among an
audience we can’t directly market to?
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
5. How could we continue to drive strong associations between
the New Balance brand and technology - and raise the bar
for ourselves in the process?
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
6. EXECUTION
We let every athlete connect their bib
# to their Facebook profile, and set
some simple rules.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
7. EXECUTION
For three days, everything they did
on the track found its way to the
people who care the most about
them.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
8. EXECUTION
We connected start times and start
lists to trigger posts notifying athletes’
networks minutes before they would
appear on the live stream.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
9. EXECUTION
We tagged athletes’ finish photos,
SmileBooth photos and race videos,
so that their networks could share the
experience.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
10. EXECUTION
We posted their results to their
streams in real-time.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
11. EXECUTION
And we built profile pages that
contained all their content, across
multiple meets, that they can access
anytime.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
12. EXECUTION
Our role was to amplify what these
athletes already do, not to change
their behavior.
13. EXECUTION
This kind of
engagement and
production requires
ongoing management
and facilitation.
15. INDOORS: NEW YORK, NY RESULTS
We’ve done this together four times:
OUTDOORS: GREENSBORO, NC
Twice indoors, Twice outdoors.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
16. RESULTS
With 3000 athletes competing over 3
days, we average:
137k page visits to the Facebook page
233k photo views
40k event video views
5000 photos in our Smilebooth
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
17. RESULTS
In the first 12 months after our first
Nationals activation: More than
35,000 new likes of the page and a
seeds of a small community that will
help to launch a larger one.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
18. RESULTS
By creating content for both athletes
and their families & friends at home,
we added value for both participant &
spectator.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit
19. RESULTS
The success of this event is
about the athlete as participant in
a social experience, not just the
audience or a source of content.
20. “An observation from someone who knows the challenges of covering this meet inside and out: The
integration of results, photos, videos, Facebook postings, FB wall comments, athlete activities outside of
competition (like hanging with friends in Smilebooth etc) at this meet is light years ahead of anything
else being done out there related to track meets, or even, I'd venture, any major sporting event. Cutting
edge. Credit to New Balance for creating a 360-degree experience that sets the bar. This story should be a
must-read for the USATF and others.”
- Dave Devine, former editor of ESPN DyeStat and USATF official
21. RESULTS
We were able to acquire ownership
of the overall event footprint, not just
the venue.
22. RESULTS
We set out to elevate the value of
participation. The athletes ran
with it, adding value to the
brand story.
Almighty + New Balance / 2012 Digiday Brand Summit