Read The Nike Case Study Attached. Analyze and describe Nike's offline marketing and

branding activities in the overall success of its digital marketing strategy.

Case study: Nike Digital

Strategy

The problem As one of the biggest sports brands in the world, Nike was not struggling for

exposure or attention. However, the brand was noticing that it's traditional, big-budget advertising strategy was seeing fewer returns over time. The biggest market for Nike products consists of young people between the ages of 15 and 25, who spend 20% more with Nike than any other group. But these Generation Y customers weren't paying attention to big, top-down media, and were looking for a brand that offered constant change and innovation, not just the same old thing over and over. Nike realized that it needed a new approach to reach this digital audience.

The solution - Understanding that marketing in the digital age is a conversation, not a monologue, Nike dropped its spending on TV and print advertising by 40% between 2010 and 2012 - but increased its overall marketing budget to $2.4 billion in 2012. Nike chose to use a combination of technological innovations, data analytics and social media Engagement to reach this new, digitally savvy audience.Engineers and scientists associated with prestigious organisations such as MIT and Apple were hired to build exciting new technologies and examine market insights. One of their biggest accomplishments was the creation of Nike+ in 2010 - a device that lets users track their exercise regimens, upload these to the web, monitor their progress, and share their achievements socially. The product range grew to include the Nike FuelBand. This new community created incredible volumes of data, which Nike used to track behaviours, create online communities and spaces for Nike fans, and build meaningful relationships between the brand and its customers. Nike moved its social media marketing team in-house so that it had a closer connection to this data and the conversations being generated by its fans. Nike also embraced a range of other digital best practices:

A strong focus on storytelling: Nike advertising shifted from delivering one core 'big message' about its products to talking about inspiration, aspirations, and overcoming odds. For example, Nike's 'I Would Run To You' ad (essentially a funny short film) shows the story of a long distance couple reconnecting by running across the country to see each other.

Being an authentic brand: The storytelling approach creates authenticity and a sense of community. Nike also strives to understand and engage with the subcultures of each sport, talking to them in the vernacular they are familiar with.

Understanding and communicating with customers on their terms: When Nike created its big-budget 'Write The Future' ad for the 2012 World Cup, featuring soccer superstars Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, it flighted the ad on Facebook and YouTube rather than on TV. Having seeded to a community and primed it with teasers, the ad received 8 million views in the first week and went viral.

Being remarkable and shareable: Nike put up a 30- storey digital billboard in Johannesburg, South Africa that was populated with constantly- updating user tweets, creating a buzz around the campaign.

Allowing mass customization: The Nike iD online store lets fans create their own custom shoe designs and have them shipped. The concept earned Nike over $100 million in its first year. The results Nike's new approach - harnessing data for user insight and creating

a diverse, social and engaged digital strategy - has had excellent results. Nike reaches over

200 million fans every day in an interactive dialogue, rather than having to rely on big sponsored events such as the Super Bowl or World Cup to reach this number. The massive volumes of freely shared user data produce meaningful brand insights, lead to product

innovations, and allow the brand to get closer to consumers. In addition to this:

Nike share prices rose by 120% between 2010 and 2012 - an important consideration,

since every business aims to make money, after all.

Nike+ experienced a 55% growth in membership in 2012 - as of June 2012, 7a million users have signed up for the service, and the majority of these connect with the brand several times each week to upload and review their exercise data.

As of August 2013, the main Nike Facebook the page has over 15 million likes, the Nike

The football page has 19.4 million likes and the Nike Basketball page has over 5 million -

posts typically see a high level of interaction and discussion.

Similarly, on Twitter, the brand is also engaging millions of fans - 1.7 million on the

core Nike account, 1.2 million on the brand's US-based Nike.com store account, and 1.4

million on the Nike Football account.