DELIVERING ANY PRODUCT to the digitally connected consumer is a challenge. Digital natives – as marketers like to call them – live in this always-connected world where their cellphone, PC and iPod have become almost permanently attached to their bodies.<\/p>\n
For a company such as Nike, the company that’s been focused on delivering sports equipment, the need to find a way to enhance the experience of its customers led to the formation of Nike Techlab 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Ogilvy Digital Verge Conference last week, Techlab director Michael Tchao explained the aim of the division was to bring physical activity into the digital community. “There have been lots of attempts to integrate sports and technology in the past but those have had all the glamour of an EKG mixed up with Microsoft Excel.<\/p>\n
“The problem is that those efforts approached the problem from the angle that it was a technology problem that needed to be solved, rather than focusing on what the runners actually needed.”<\/p>\n
Tchao explained that in order to avoid that trap Techlab tried to work out what provided the motivation for runners to strap on running shoes and hit the road. “The issue is that the running world is broken up into a number of groups: core runners – for whom running is part of their life – and everyone else who needs motivation to get up in the morning and go for a run.<\/p>\n
“We also saw a change in the running community, where people were trying to transcend the stereotype of running as a sport you do on your own but rather wanted to be part of something bigger. At the same time the relationship between music and running has also changed.<\/p>\n
“A few years ago a survey showed that 25% listened to music while they were running but more recently that figure had rocketed to 75%, with 45% saying that they wouldn’t run if they couldn’t listen to music at the same time.”<\/p>\n
Nike’s answer to that research was to team with Apple to create the Nike+ system, which links a small sensor that can fit into a pouch on selected Nike shoes to an iPod nano. The sensor sends information back to the iPod and it records data, such as time and distance run and calories burned.<\/p>\n
However, the hardware is the simplest part of the equation. The real magic happens on the Web when the customer connects the iPod to his computer. Using Apple’s iTunes software as a conduit it uploads the information to www.nikeplus.com<\/a> so runners can keep track of their efforts.<\/p>\n More important is the ability of runners to use the site to set goals and challenges: users can decide what they need to achieve and can use the system not only to monitor their progress but to also interact with their friends and provide motivation for each other.<\/p>\n Nike also uses the service to provide virtual tie-ins for its real world running events. Tchao says one upcoming event is a tie-in to the Olympic Games when, on 31 August, Nike is organising runs in 25 cities worldwide. At the same time it’s using its web service to encourage members to get together and undertake ad hoc runs in other places to coincide with the event, with the site being used to co-ordinate and log the results.<\/p>\n Tchao says while Nike doesn’t reveal numbers of those using its system, or how many have been sold, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed last year that a million Nike+ iPod kits had already been sold, putting the current number of users well north of that 1m mark. It’s also expanding the reach of its service beyond the reach of Nike products, as it’s built systems that integrate into gym equipment and simply use the iPod and the Nike+ site.<\/p>\n Tchao commented that the aim of Nike Techlab is to take the lessons learned from its experience with the running community and see how those could be applied in other sports, such as golf, soccer and swimming.<\/p>\n For those who like the idea of using the system but don’t want to go the Nike route with its shoes, it’s possible to jury-rig systems to attach the sensor to any type of shoe.<\/p>\n