You may remember from the media coverage last week that Lance Armstrong decided to go for a bike ride in Scotland. Pretty unremarkable after all you would have thought he must go for the odd ride quite often. Except this time he invited some friends along with him – actually 1.8 million friends.

Armstrong sent out a tweet saying he was in Scotland and fancied going for a ride that afternoon. Cue pandemonium in Paisley (yes, Paisley) town centre with hundreds of cyclists and media turning out.

He’s at it again – a few hours ago I got another tweet from the seven-times Tour de France winner:

Armstrong, already the most followed sportsman on Twitter, is re-defining the barriers between sportspeople and the public. This is pretty much the equivalent of David Beckham saying he was going for a kick about at his local park, who wants to join him and bring your jumpers for the goalposts.

This is consumer engagement at its rawest – brands take note. This ‘mass exclusive’ event directed by Armstrong himself means that even sat at my desk, I feel part of it and if I lived close enough I’d certainly be down there on my bike. Imagine the power of a brand delivering and facilitating this level of interaction without diluting it?

By Dominic Curran on August 25th, 2009

Tags: David Beckham ,Lance Armstrong ,Public relations

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The stand-out performer on the track at this week’s World Athletics Championships in Berlin has of course been the astonishing Usain Bolt. Off the track, his sponsors Puma have also demolished the opposition in the marketing contest (albeit that Puma had little to beat, given the complete lack of activation by the various event sponsors) with a funny, savvy, multi-platform campaign which is right up there with anything produced by the category titans, adidas and Nike.

The inspiration for the campaign was gifted to Puma:  the fact that fans and the media incessantly request that Bolt reprise his trademark ’arms pointing skyward’ pose from the Beijing Olympics wherever he goes. Puma’s inspired twist? A ‘solution’ to the problem, developed after ‘a year of research and development’, in the shape of strap-on foam ‘Bolt Arms’.

“From now on, they do the pose”, says Bolt, at a fake but cleverly-rendered press conference included in a number of virals released as part of the Puma campaign, which is notable for its integrated use of social media platforms.

Cue from there a blitz of experiential activity in Berlin, including mass distribution of the Arms to fans, leading to an inevitable decision by the IAAF (sports equipment sponsor: adidas) to ban fans from wearing ‘Bolt Arms’ in the stadium – prompting Puma to ask fans via Twitter if anyone managed to sneak them inside, which they clearly did judging by numerous TV crowd shots.

All in all an exemplary case study, and to my mind a contender for campaign of the year.

By Tim Crow on August 21st, 2009

Tags: Ambush campaign ,Athletics ,Beijing 2008 ,Default ,Digital marketing ,Viral Marketing

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Just when Tuffers and Dizzy thought they had got over the worst of the dangerous, nerve racking and quite possibly life-threatening Betfair Challenges, they arrived at a farm in Leeds ahead of the Headingley Test to bowl each other down a giant hill in zorbs, attempting to hit the super sized inflatable stumps at the bottom. 

Sky Sports News and BBC Look North turned out to film the action and there was much concern from both Dizzy and Tuffers that they may well be sick live on TV!  Tuffers bowled first and sent Dizzy down the hill at 30mph with a googly that uprooted offstump.  Dizzy levelled the Challenge by launching a very ill-looking Tuffers down the hill and in to the stumps.  Challenge drawn, leaving the series poised at 2-1 to England, with the all important 6-aside cricket match to be played.

The final Challenge took the series to the Hurlingham Club in West London – and Tuffers continued his good form and brought the trophy back to England. Although Dizzy had “The Cat” cowering to square leg against his aggresive fast bowling, Tuffers’ Tyrants held on with the help of a majestic knock from ex West Indies batsman Jimmy Adams.  To watch all the action go to FanvFan.com

Dizzy now has to face a forfeit for losing the Betfair Challenge series.  He will have the honour of having the St George Cross emblazoned across his chest at The Oval and have to cheer England on amongst the Barmy Army as England look to win the real Ashes in the final Test.

By Simon Roche on August 20th, 2009

Tags: Ashes ,Branded content ,Default ,Digital marketing

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So John Cleese will be footing a £12.5 million bill for his divorce of second wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger. As Cleese put it, “I got off lightly. Think what I’d have had to pay if she’d contributed anything.” Whatever the reason for this split, there may be more proceedings to be filed over the coming months, following news of the imminent release of Championship Manager 2010 from software house Eidos.

For a limited time only, Eidos is offering its revered football management title to online consumers through a ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ mechanic. Aside from a non-negotiable £2.50 ‘delivery charge’, buyers can theoretically spend as little as a penny extra to own the game. It’s an audacious move, with even the staunchest of CM fans likely to pay less than RRP to get a piece of their narcotic of choice. The risk-reward ratio must come down to how many new enthusiasts/devotees/junkies can be brought into the franchise through either the reality of the deal, or the PR noise it’s made. It’s brave, it’s bold, but one has the feeling it’s based on a commercial reality – surely someone at Eidos has done their sums before this launch got the green light? Radiohead employed a similar tactic on the release of their album ‘In Rainbows’ and claimed to enjoy the last laugh, making more money than all their other albums put together.

The fact is that much of this has been made possible by the move from the physical to the virtual transaction. Whilst there’s no suggestion that making £2.51 a time off a product traditionally retailing at around £40 will keep the CEO in your pocket, the shift from purchase off-shelf to online does fundamentally change the business model: no packaging, no CD, no negotiated shelf-space, no point of sale material…no hassle. It’s not as though this is anything new – software has always been available via the internet, legally or otherwise, but the bandwidth has got broader and the delivery mechanisms more mainstream. We’re not talking about shady P2P software ‘shopping’ services for the tech-savvy, but point-and-click, monetised downloads for the wider PC/console/mobile user.

The iTunes App Store blazes a trail with its well-vaunted billion downloads worldwide, giving an impression as to the appetite of iPhone and iTouch owners for the various games, utilities and services available. Similarly, both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have their own download services for the broadband generation, offering software updates – such as the well-publicised England kit that Umbro automatically ‘launched’ in Pro Evolution Soccer – and full games. In fact, digital distribution of this kind of content – whilst not a replacement for a physical purchase given the size of modern console games versus their in-built storage capacity – has proven hugely profitable for a number of companies. The classic software title Worms, recouped its development costs within four hours of its release on Xbox Live Arcade – a staggering feat without a single CD in sight.

And now, Championship Manager, the football sim notable for its reputation of turning male university students into soccer stat-devouring zombies after countless all-night sessions on their PCs – long the bane of other halves across the globe. Officially cited in over 35 divorce proceeding to date, it’s the pastime that makes regular football widows grief look half-baked, and the dirty little secret that should set alarm bells ringing in any prospective relationship. With incidences of laptops being thrown from windows following any given catastrophic loss, to that of the player fabled to have dressed in a suit and tie for his team’s appearance in the FA Cup Final – the game has created its own Masonic subculture of transfer tips, war stories and spousal rejection.

And thanks to the Eidos honesty box, it’s about to get worse…

By Jonathan Izzard on August 20th, 2009

Tags: Default ,Downloads ,Football ,Mobile ,New Product Development

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It’s the biggest worry for any newspaper proprietor out there. Actual paper sales are on a downward trajectory while traffic to their websites is flying upwards – but how can they make a viable business model out if?

A quick look at the numbers underlines this mounting difficulty. For example, digital revenue comprised less then 10% of Trinity Mirror’s regional revenue in 2008 and although newspaper sites are amassing huge numbers (MailOnline had 29.4 million global unique users in June), domestic advertisers are reluctant to pay for a largely overseas audience. On the flip side print ad revenue is falling fast – Associated Newspaper saw revenue fall 15% yoy in Q2. So something needs to be done and fast.

Last week, Rupert Murdoch declared that News Corp newspaper sites would soon begin charging for online access. The likely model is going to be charging for premium subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal while The Sunday Times in London is planning a stand-alone website.

Some rivals have been quick to dismiss the idea as there are so many free online news sites such as the BBC so why would consumers pay for it? However, Murdoch believes we will pay for celebrity news, major scoops and exclusive content.

So the key to success would seem to be having that content people are willing to charge for – and this focus on high quality, opinionated content and scoops could be the shot in the arm for under pressure (and sometimes understaffed) newsdesks. While the system of charging needs to be made as simple as possible with clear entry points and ‘walled-garden’ systems.

Murdoch won’t be the first to try – The FT have done it with some success while The New York Times had to rapidly u-turn on its first attempt at a charging system.  Critically though, he will be the biggest to try and there’s no doubt the rest of the industry will sit up and watch with interest.

Lest we forget he’s led the field before in proving people will pay for unique content – twenty years ago Sky was launched off the back of sport and movies.

By Dominic Curran on August 17th, 2009

Tags: Branded content ,Communications ,Default ,Media

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