Nike's #breaking2 a success despite failure, tech adoption rates in vote & the Future of Marketing: Editor's Overview
The Drum editor, Stephen Lepitak offers his weekly take on some stories and events from the past week and highlights a few things ahead for The Drum.
Stephen Lepitak
Nike shows marketers how to make cultural connections
Pepsi has shown marketers how easy it is to go wrong when targeting public empathy - it's probably easier to hit the wrong note than get it right which should be an alarm bell for any brand marketer. Only get involved in an idea if it truly resonates with what you say and do. You'd think that was obvious and the number of times I've read it and heard it said and yet still the error continues to be made. So well done Nike on staging a wonderful stunt in attempting to break the two hour marathon barrier.
#breaking2 (I did initially think they were attempting to remake the 'classic' Cannon Films movie that gave us the timeless phrase Electric Boogaloo when I first heard about it) was a masterstroke with Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge becoming the fastest person in history to run a marathon.
Even though he was just 25 seconds shy of breaking the set two hour mark, this shows the Nike brand at its most effective - helping athletes push themselves harder. As Nike says - Just Do It - and this stunt absolutely nails that thinking. And it caught the attention of athletes all around the world - two hours to run that distance? Well Nike just got them talking about it and - you wouldn't put them past trying again and succeeding this time.
High fives all around.
Now...why is KFC sending a sandwich into space? Anyone?
The era of tech adoption is speeding up
I came across this recently on LinkedIn which I thought I would share. I have often wondered when things now work in real-time how do we get any faster - and this made me wonder it again. Maybe everything is too fast in life right now - but as tech advances there is nothing to show that that will change anytime soon, if ever at all.
The Future of Marketing & elsewhere at The Drum this week
On Thursday we'll be hosting our second year of The Future of Marketing, our annual conference which aims to cover various themes developing long term within the business. The line up I have to say is fantastic, led by Barack Obama's spokesman Eric Schultz, YouTube sensation Alfie Deyes, Carolyn McKeever, global head of loyalty at Shell, Michael Inpong
CMO, Muller and Lars Silberbauer, senior global director of Social Media & Video for The Lego Company among many more influential marketers who will talk about the direction the industry is heading in.
Get your tickets for one of the sessions or even the whole day here:
Also this week is our annual mobile advertising awards - The Drum Momas which will be taking place in London on Thursday 11 May. Nominations can be found here for the ceremony which takes place at the Emirates Stadium.
Contact annabel.conn@thedrum.com for more details.
Next week we will have the latest breakfast briefing. With the market responding to the rise of creativity and rapid technological developments, how do businesses monitor these issues and determine where to implement change within affiliate models? The Drum invites you to listen to our panel of experts spearheading innovation within the performance sector and to be the first to hear what they predict for the industry. To join the discussion, register here.
If you would like to get in touch with me try me on Twitter @stephenlepitak or through LinkedIn.
Have a great week