Think of any brand associated with an athlete, and in most cases the brand will have approached the athlete as a result of the athlete’s brand/consumer fit and will be paying them a hefty sponsorship fee in return for a number of rights.

In “What We Love” this month though, we explore a brand who took a much more innovative and engaging approach to sponsorship by inviting a number of athletes to compete for a sponsorship contract, with their consumers ultimately choosing the winning athlete.

So who is the brand and what did they do?

In March this year, Sony Ericsson – a long time supporter of women’s tennis – launched a new format entertainment show, “Xperia Hotshots,” which followed the lives of six globetrotting, aspiring stars of the WTA, all of whom were competing for a sponsorship contract from Sony Ericsson.

The competition centred around the online buzz each tennis star could generate for themselves, with the player receiving the most number of votes on the official Sony Ericsson Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/xperiahotshots) receiving €100,000 of support from the brand.

In order to help with the challenge, Sony Ericsson gave the players exclusive access to major music, film and fashion events as they toured the globe playing tennis. The players were also able to use their own stardom and contacts to aid them in generating the most interesting content, as long as it was shared via social network sites using the Xperia handsets that were given to the stars.

As an extra incentive for fans to get involved and follow the series, all of those who “Liked” the ‘Hotshots’ Facebook page were also entered into a prize draw to win tickets to the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami

Over the course of the campaign, which ended on 5 September and was won by Wimbledon Semi-Finalist Sabine Lisicki, the competition generated huge awareness for Sony Ericsson including 820,000 friends on Facebook; 3 Million video views on YouTube; 100,000 mobile app downloads; 1,200 pieces of media coverage; 70 videos produced; and 530 hours of footage shot.

Why we love it

We love this campaign here at Synergy for several reasons. Firstly, by prescribing that the players must use their Sony Ericsson Xperia Android touch smartphones to communicate with their fans through Social media, Sony Ericsson were able to showcase the product’s unique features in real life situations, thereby providing consumers with a much better understanding of its unique selling points, benefits and potential usage occasions.

Secondly, by focusing on the use of the phone for entertainment purposes and social media (as opposed to purely a communication device) the perception of Sony Ericsson as THE communication entertainment brand was greatly enhance.

Thirdly, by engaging fans in the athlete selection process, Sony Ericsson were able to generate a much deeper bond between their potential consumers and the ultimate Ambassador than if the athlete were contracted behind closed doors, and fans who engaged in the voting process are now more likely to follow that athlete going forwards than if the athlete had been selected on the basis of whom the marketers thought would offer the best brand/consumer fit.

Finally, by profiling six players, Sony Ericsson very cleverly linked themselves to all of these world-class athletes when they only contracted one; six great brand endorsements for the price one . . . not bad going!

By Liz Brown on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Brand marketing, Celebrity, Communications, Default, Facebook, Media, Mobile, Online communities, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Tennis, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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Oakley‘s immersion into athletic eye wear began in 1980, when the company released its first model of motorcycle goggles. Dubbed the “O-Frame,” the goggle consisted of an arced cylindrical lens that would eventually become the brand’s hallmark. Over the last 30 years, Oakley has been awarded more than 600 patents and developed, through strategic sponsorship, enviable relationships with sport’s elite.

The first professional athlete to be sponsored by Oakley was the three-time winner of the Tour de France, Greg LeMond, in 1984. Since then, Oakley has sponsored a diverse range of leading sportspeople. The most notable of which, Lance Armstrong, has been with the brand since 1988. Here he is in the current Oakley Rebellion campaign.

In the Rebellion campaign, Oakley positions itself as a brand that is built on being against the status quo, against conventional thinking and against underachieving. It is this attitude that Oakley looks to share with its athletes so as to emphasise the credibility of this positioning.

To dovetail this Rebellion campaign, Oakley Europe has kept innovation at the forefront of their mind by launching its ‘You Vs’ digital campaign. The goal of this innovative social media campaign is to build Oakley’s European Facebook community while creating awareness about the Oakley athletes. We think it’s been done brilliantly!

What happened?

‘You Vs’ takes viewers inside the world of professional sport by putting ‘you’ against the Oakley pro athlete. The videos, which viewers are directed to after ‘liking’ Oakley on Facebook, have been filmed in a point-of-view style and allows viewers to compete against the athlete. The fact that the film plays through Facebook, ensures each viewer enjoys a personalized experience with their name and profile pictures appearing at key narrative points. This personal touch creates a sense of individuality and elitism that resonates strongly with Oakley.

The first experience has been created with world champion cyclist Mark Cavendish. In this challenge the user gets to race against Mark through Italy’s beautiful Tuscan hills. The interactive film allows the viewer to make ‘live’ decisions that affect the outcome of the race, from how to take corners to when to start the final sprint.

Oakley eyewear is also integrated into the decision-making, allowing fans to select different lenses at the start of the challenge and custom-build a pair of frames at the end of the experience, bringing them closer to the world of professional sportsmen.

Other experiences will be released over the next six months with Oakley athletes including Kevin Pieterson, Ian Poulter, Janko Tipsarevic and Sebastien Loeb. These videos will be timed to coincide with major sporting events, having started with Mark Cavendish and the Tour de France.

Why we like it

We like the ‘You Vs’ digital campaign because it gives us the chance to challenge some of the world best sportsmen. More importantly, it offers us insight into the key decisions that athletes are continuously making when competing. It is these decisions that end up separating first and second place, but it is very seldom that fans are exposed to the stragic side of sport. This campaign by Oakley now enables the everyday athlete, who is usually constricted to shouting ‘advice’ at their TV, the opportunity to experience competing against the world’s elite and making those all important decisions.

Oakley has planned the release of the films to coincide with high profile sporting events throughout the year. This has been done to encourage long term engagement and to allow fans from a particular sport to discover and develop an interest in other Oakley athletes.

This, together with the great cinematography, has produced an exciting campaign that has the potential to be shared by many on Facebook. As the campaign gathers momentum, so too will Oakley’s digital presence in Europe.

What the brand says

Tom Cartmale, marketing director for Oakley UK, commented: ‘As a technology driven brand Oakley has always invested in digital media and looked at new ways of engaging social media communities’. He continued to say, ‘Our aim is to create immersive brand experiences that engage a wide audience of sports fans, showcase our hero athletes and bring our products to life. We hope to build a significant Facebook community as a result and boost awareness of key product stories, in particular lens adaptability and customized frames’.

We feel that the innovative ‘You Vs’ campaign achieves exactly those goals and, after 61,000 Facebook likes, is already having the desired effect for Oakley.

Now I suggest you click here and give it a try for yourself. Let us know how you get on.

By Mike Russell on July 26th, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Default, Digital marketing, Facebook, Media, Online communities, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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When I was eight years old, my Dad took me on my first museum outing – the Imperial War Museum in London – and a day climbing over and into tanks and cannons was as close to boyhood nirvana as it got. Ever since then, I’ve had a borderline obsession with museums.

From dinosaurs to ancient rocks to scrolls – you show it, I’ll walk round it (although given half a chance I’ll still climb on it). Social media sites like Facebook are as close to a personal museum as you can get, you curate your own life and share it with the world. So Intel’s taken a clever but natural next step for natural egoists like me by creating the ‘Museum of Me’.

It’s really an advert for Intel’s Core i5 processor but wrapped up in an involving way. It’s simple – you give permission for it to lift directly from your Facebook page and it then takes you on a virtual tour of a museum dedicated to you using photos, video and comments already on your page.

After moving through a mixture of gallery rooms dedicated to yourself with virtual people looking on, it culminates in a montage shot of your profile picture made up from all the shots on your page.

OK, being honest, I found parts of it a tad creepy due to the entirely random nature of it. For example an ex featured prominently throughout while my wife didn’t get a look in. In addition, I thought their opening line of ‘this exhibition is a journey of visualisation that explores who I am’ mixed with the emotive music tries to take it to a depth lost on me. But overall I thought as an interactive advert that taps into the core fundamentals of social media (narcissism) it was a very clever piece of work.

It’s simple, requiring minimal input for decent reward; it’s highly sharable and it works on a principle of a brand encouraging rather than dictating user behaviour. Most importantly, it fundamentally showcases Intel’s tagline perfectly –‘Visibly Smart’ and has over half a million likes so far.

Given a choice, I’d probably still rather climb over a tank but as a Museum I can visit in 30 seconds from my laptop it works.

By Dominic Curran on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Art & Design, community, Default, Design, Facebook, Media, Online communities, Public relations, Social Media, Synergy, Synergy Loves, The Arts, Viral Marketing

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Anyone watching Newsnight this week may have caught the interesting feature on popular design website Information is Beautiful. For the uninitiated amongst you, the site is the brainchild of David McCandless, who describes himself as “an independent data journalist and information designer…interested in how designed information can help us understand the world”.

With nods to the seminal philosopher and statistician Otto Neurath, whose motto, “words divide, images unite”, led him to design an icon-based language to express quantitative information, Information is Beautiful presents a fascinating series of visualisations, a distillation of democratised data, if you will. In a world where we’re constantly struggling under the weight of statistics, news, opinion, video – not to mention a healthy measure of total junk – McCandless questions whether there’s a compelling means of simplifying, and in some way better understanding the constant stream of facts and figures routinely presented to us by the media.

This mission led to one of IIB’s most famous designs, The Billion Dollar-o-Gram, an exercise in quantifying the unquantifiable: I mean, what does $1billion really mean to anyone?

It was inevitable that this project would attract the attention of the media, with sites such as The Guardian’s Datablog providing a ready outlet for data and stats with a journalistic hook, that can be represented in a new and appealing way.

Mr McCandless’s appearance on Newsnight was certainly a little different, as you might expect, with host Kirsty Wark and guest, respected designer Neville Brody, critiquing McCandless’s previous assertion that visualisations had the potential to offer new insights into the politics of the world around us.

The debate’s well-worth watching, even if it involves the somewhat unjust intellectual skewering of Mr McCandless by the Brody-Wark duo, whose main argument is that designs such as those found on IIB, whilst beguiling and attractive, are likely to oversimplify the deeper issues behind the information from which they are drawn. We might feel slightly cleverer, but we aren’t necessarily any better informed; the designs are knowing, without necessarily imparting knowledge.

It was an awkward paradox for McCandless, as, by the nature of his work, he is bound by the information he illustrates, restricted to those nuggets that lend themselves to visual representation, however clever or imaginative the resultant images are.

Interpretation is all important, with IIB less about blind acceptance than mental stimulus: if it forces you to find out more, it’s achieved a goal.

Other examples of this include the excellent online resource Wordle – a word-cloud generator, which can quickly deliver images like…

Whilst certainly a valuable tool in linguistic sifting, it’s hardly something upon which you’d base an entire opinion. Instead this presents us with a means of examining the patterns in a complicated world, rather than explaining them.

Similarly, the online project ‘We Feel Fine’ – also referenced in the Newsnight report – is a resource as alluring as it is technically impressive. Scouring the global social media landscape every 10 minutes for any posts starting with the words “I am feeling…” or “I feel…”, the output is a demographically configurable snapshot of sentiment. Emotion trending, perhaps. The organic, transient and in many ways fickle nature of social media updates questions this as a means of truly tracking the mood of a nation, but it certainly offers food for thought.

There’ll always be a précis, a Cliffs Notes, an elevator pitch or edit to help us cope with today’s crowded and clouded data-stream – the impetus on us is to question, examine the bigger picture, ensure that visualisations such as those of David McCandless serve as cues to curiousity. It’s not just a design, but an invitation to explore the numbers, opinions, testimony, photos and history surrounding an issue, all accessible via a few extra clicks of the mouse.

Information might be beautiful; integration is essential.

By Jonathan Izzard on August 17th, 2010

Tags: Design, Media, Online communities, Social Media, Television

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It’s a very exciting time when the mascots are announced for any Games.  Admittedly, this excitement is normally reserved for those aged under ten, and rightly so.  However, I feel very fortunate that I’m blessed with an inner child and can appreciate similar feelings of anticipation that I did back when I was six or seven years old. The more exciting thing this time though, is the fact I might actually get to meet the London 2012 editions.  If you’ve yet to see them, take a look at the Telegraph’s comprehensive explanation of their design.

As you’ve probably guessed I like them.  I think they offer something that will inspire and engage young people across the UK.  They have a thrilling adventure ahead of them and they’ll be able to interact with their audience like never before in the history of Olympic Mascots.  The speed in which both technology and young people have developed in recent years is astonishing.  The digital children right across all corners of the UK will have the opportunity to follow, like and play with Wenlock and Mandeville however they choose, whenever they choose and wherever they choose.  Surely this is amazing? They will take them on holiday, take them to school and probably in the bath too, and more often than not this will be through the digital channel.

I think for brands involved as Official Partners of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games this offers a unique opportunity.  The mascots will play an important role in connecting with the young people, not only in terms of promoting the Games, but also as an educational inspiration.  I remember how engaged I was when taught about the Olympic movement, having something so real and tangible on the door step will have an enormous impact, particularly for young boys who commonly have learning challenges in certain subjects of the curriculum in this age group.  Tapping into to this market to help develop and extend the Olympic experience and involve our young nation in the Games is a fantastic opportunity and we’ll be looking to develop programmes for our clients to maximise this exciting development.

So, I hope you to get some excitement from seeing the new mascots unveiled.  If they’re not for you don’t worry, but I urge you to just ask a small person their opinion in two years time, as this will be the true judge of the success of Wenlock and Mandeville.  Get involved yourselves and follow them on Twitter @iamwenlock and @iammandeville and see how the story unfolds in the build up to the ever nearing London 2012. And keep your eye on this blog, as if I do get the chance to meet them the pictures will be here first!

By Ben Wilkinson on May 20th, 2010

Tags: BOA, Brand marketing, Branded content, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Facebook, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Online communities, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy, Team GB

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Microsoft has announced the release of a new mobile phone designed to capture the hearts, minds and standing orders of ‘younger, chattier, socially switched-on’ users.

Developed in conjunction with former Manchester United sponsor Sharp, the brand is to be known as KIN, and represents a range of mobile phones – currently dubbed KIN One and KIN Two – the former in particular a pretty neat-looking device somewhere between a Palm Pre and the chubby widescreen variety of iPod Nano.

From left, KINs One and Two

It’s not a Blackberry, neither is it an Android-a-like, and it’s definitely, categorically not an iPhone challenger. With social media feed functionality placing it in an interesting limbo between smartphone and old-fashioned ‘dumb phone’, the KIN may, in fact, be more of a long-term stepping stone for Microsoft in converting a wider audience to the upcoming mobile Windows 7 OS.

Check the KIN website: it’s all very ‘youth’ (and not even in a ‘this is what all the kids are doing these days, isn’t it everyone?’ Gap style), informative, pretty and dynamic…nice, and contains only the tiniest nods to Microsoft…phew.

Does this mean Microsoft has broken free from its infamous track-record of dad-dancing that has confirmed the world’s third largest company as one of its dorkiest? Of course not, as confirmed by the following shot of Microsoft exec Robbie Bach from the KIN’s press launch last week – probably not the Generation Y shot in the arm the product required, given its offering and audience.

Robbie Bach at the KIN press launch

So why do Microsoft rule the uncool, and how do they manage to make things so effortlessly undesirable?

The much-ridiculed Window 7 Launch Party video holds one or two clues…

If you never saw this, please watch as much as is humanly possible of the video above (I’d say about 12 seconds) and then have a look at the Remix version on this ‘tribute’ site, which, through the tiniest addition has produced something eminently more watchable.

So why will people line up to shoot Microsoft down for this? Is it because the original video is so replete with cheese, yet so bereft of irony? Is it because of the public’s distaste for celebrating what is effectively a stress-purchase, in this case designed to solve the problems created by Microsoft Vista, W7′s predecessor? Or is it simply that the idea of hosting a party to launch a computer operating system is just incredibly bizarre?

Go back a little further to Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ campaign. This was a response to Apple’s ongoing advertising creative which pitched a ‘typical’ PC user against a Macophile. In the US this campaign included Justin Long (of Dodgeball and Die Hard 4.0) as ‘the Mac’, but UK consumers will be more familiar with the localisation featuring Mitchell and Webb.

Whilst a comedic exercise in stereotypes – termed as bullying from certain pro-PC quarters – ultimately, Apple’s campaign was grounded in the functional versus the inspirational: on the whole people have to use PCs, but choose to own a Mac. If this isn’t an indicator of brand love, then I’m not sure what is.

Were Pharrell Williams’ claims that he’s a PC enough to turn the heads of unbelievers? What about when they see him on his  iPhone? Did Eva Longoria’s endorsement make PCs any sexier? Tough to say, especially when she was subsequently captured at the airport on her MacBook. Isn’t this indicative of the difference between obligation and aspiration?

Whatever way you look at it, in the constantly-updating, virtually-democratised world of the web, where transparency is a badge of honour, there’s very little room for the clumsy manufacture of cool. And even if you did want to – Microsoft boffins, take note – there’s a formula you need to apply…

Generated through research conducted between InSites Consulting and MTV Belgium amongst 13-29 year-olds, the above represents the key factors (at an official ratio of 22% originality, 23% popularity and 55% attractiveness) that contribute to make a brand, product or service ‘cool’.

The same study demonstrated that 73% of all brand loyalty is about the coolness of the brand, with young people today buying twice as many cool brands than uncool brands, while the future purchase intention of these brands is no less than three times as high. It doesn’t really matter whether this is right/wrong/lowlands-specific, but there’s little argument in the study’s assertion that trying to be cool is the worst thing you can ever do. Ever.

A tragic confirmation of this is Microsoft (honestly, I don’t actually dislike the company, there’s just so much cannon fodder) and its foray into the digital music market…the ill-fated Zune. They have the set-up, the know-how, and the can-do attitude, but this couldn’t save Microsoft from failing on the Originality, Popularity or Attractiveness fronts, in the face of Apple’s iPod. In fact,  in what is probably my favourite comedy product on the internet, you can even buy what has been termed the ultimate Apple anti-theft device, the ‘Hide-a-Pod’ - a Zune-disguise for your iPod.

Who knows what the fate holds for Microsoft’s latest mobile offering, but unless they learn the lessons from past product launches, there’s a chance it could be KIN useless.

By Jonathan Izzard on April 19th, 2010

Tags: Blogging, Brand marketing, Default, Digital marketing, Media, Mobile, New Product Development, Online communities, Viral Marketing

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Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

- Ferris Bueller

Sentiments borne of teenage frustration and a need for escape, rebellion and self-expression from the master of the ‘80s genre, the late great John Hughes. A simpler time, one might argue: the days before the web, wi-fi, information aggregation and real-time status updates live-streamed from a virtual community of billions.

Nowadays, information overload is well-documented, but to put things into context, it’s worth reviewing a snippet of the review of web use in 2009 from the legends at Pingdom.

So, in 2009:

- 90 trillion emails were sent…of which 81% were classified as spam (that’s 200 billion mails a day)
- A total of 234 billion websites were catalogued…with a further 47 million added last year
- There were 1.73 billion internet users worldwide…an 18% increase on 2008
- 126 million blogs were tracked by BlogPulse…with 84% of social network sites with more women than men
- Microblogs weighed in with a hefty 27.3 million tweets per day…although 57% of Twitter‘s user base is in the US
- Facebook reached 350m users…50% of whom logged on every day
- 4 billion images were hosted on Flickr…however, 2.5 billion per month were uploaded to Facebook
- 1 billion videos were viewed per day on You Tube…with the average user watching 182 videos per month

And breathe.

In an age where the relentless pace of technological change means that many of us feel like we’re running to stand still, how do we find the time to stand and stare? If only there was some kind of machine that could take you back, pre-tipping point, or at least let you remember what things once looked and felt like…

You’ll be needing the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Whether it’s for research, curiosity or simple nostalgia, this is a really fascinating resource. Type in whatever website you’re interested in and the site will offer you glimpses of archived pages from as far back as the mid ‘90s.

Just to get you started, how about:

Hotmail circa 1997

Google circa 1998

BBC.co.uk circa 2000

Sky Sport circa 2001

You Tube circa 2005

Granted, hardware, software and coding changes mean that not every page works perfectly or looks exactly as it used to. However, it’s a great way of frittering away a couple of minutes online, and even acts as a would-be stomach pump for the reclamation of forgotten morsels of data that Google, like a virtual sarlacc, has swallowed up but is now unable to regurgitate via organic search, such is the ceaseless growth of cyberspace.

Whether you find what you’re looking for or not, such online time travel confirms that LP Hartley knew what he was talking about…the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

By Jonathan Izzard on April 12th, 2010

Tags: Blogging, community, Content, Default, Facebook, Media, Online communities, YouTube

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