Campaign Summary

Sneaker speculation is big business in Hong Kong, meaning speculators purchase new Nike products and then resell them immediately to make money. To combat this inflation, Nike created an online mobile “Locker Room” that provided brand fans with access to unique content and news, as well as the opportunity to preorder Nike products.

Strategy

Objective and Context:

Hong Kong has one of the most expensive property markets in the world, thanks to Hong Kong’s property speculators — investors who buy properties, only to quickly onsell for a higher price. 

But Hong Kong also has “sneaker speculators.” Sneakers are hot property in the city, and shoe speculators are present at every Nike product release; some line up for days to ensure their chances of nabbing the latest special Nike products. 

Although their existence is a testament to the cult value of the Nike brand, speculators posed a problem for the Nike brand. Nike is an aspirational brand; it wants to inspire and mobilize the next generation to be active and involved in their community sporting programs. The speculation activity around Nike product releases meant true Nike brand evangelists often missed out on the products and began to question the transparency of how Nike distributed stock. This mistrust didn’t align with Nike’s brand values.

Nike needed to connect and recruit true sneaker enthusiasts in Hong Kong, cut out the speculators, and allow Nike to engage with its community by placing its products directly in the hands of the true target market.

Target Audience:

The target audience was Nike’s core fans, who were young adults from age 16 to 30. This group participates in sports like basketball, football, and running, and has visited a Nike store within the last 12 months.

Creative Strategy:

A key challenge for this project was that e-commerce was not considered a solution to this problem, so Nike needed to channel its brand persona and get active, step up, and take back control of its own product portfolio. 

Nike.com is a resource for information about brand activities and the Nike product portfolio. It’s also a truly global site, and the solution to the Hong Kong-specific problem couldn’t be found in this plentiful content already provided by global.

The brand needed to create a channel dedicated to connecting with, and recruiting, true Nike enthusiasts in Hong Kong — a direct line to Nike’s army of fans. With mobile at the core, the Nike Locker Room was an online space where Nike Hong Kong could brief its fans on what the retail game plan would be, and where brand fans could get all the latest information on Nike products and initiatives.

In the Nike Locker Room, the brand provided personalized experiences for each group of its enthusiasts, including Nike basketball, Nike football, and Nike running. The experience would be smart, remembering sport preferences, products, and news, so Nike could recommend relevant products and content for each athlete who visited the Locker Room.

Execution

Overall Campaign Execution:

This was first year of the campaign, and the Nike Locker Room, like a real locker room, became the home of Nike’s Hong Kong team players. Here, retail game plan tips were gathered, new product information was briefed, Nike event details were shared, and fashion look books were browsed.

Mobile Execution:

The Nike Locker Room was launched in three phases:

Phase 1: Nike Locker Room Opens

This phase was when the web and mobile Locker Room launched, featuring information on Nike products and news. Thanks to a special data collection facility, the site featured contextual content by remembering each user’s sports preferences, products browsed, and products owned. This rich experience meant Nike fans would feel like a welcomed part of the team in this Locker Room.                  

• Product: The Locker Room went live with details of products available sorted by sport, making it easier to navigate.
• News: The site featured a blog where the brand shared long-form details of product and activity launches.
• Database: The Locker Room served to consolidate all consumer data under a single identity, which was used to create a database of Nike brand fans.
• User Experience: Nike’s Locker Room was designed to support all platforms with a design that provided a neat user experience. Highlights included a quick-search function and the ability for Nike to recommend products based on previous search results. It was a fundamental portal for the Nike Hong Kong team to gather its audience’s product and browsing preferences.

Phase 2: Nike Ends the Reign of Sneaker Speculation

Phase 2 saw the end of Nike sneaker speculation and drew huge engagement rates among Nike brand fans, generating powerful peer-to-peer product recommendations.

• Preorder: A new function allowed consumers to preorder products via the Nike Locker Room instead of queuing up on the street. Nike fans completed an online preorder form and entered the lucky draw for random allocation of product. The more they shared their entries on social media, the more entries they received. Consumers loved this element; it democratized their ability to access new products, saved time, and made the process more transparent. For Nike, the system expanded traffic and captured consumer preference.

Phase 3: Enhanced on Mobile

The Nike Locker Room was revamped on the mobile site. Mobile-specific features included:

• Landing: Visitors were welcomed by a contextual landing page, featuring products and news relevant to a user’s preference.
• Wish list: Nike fans created their own wish list and kept a list of products they already owned. This information allowed the brand to execute CRM initiatives, generating EDMs recommending products it knew consumers wanted to know about.
• News: News delivered was dictated by user preference.
• Calendar: Mobile site users were able to sync product launches in their calendars to ensure they placed their entry into the lucky draw and knew when new products were in store.
• Geo-local: Users could find a Nike store near their location.

Results (including context, evaluation, and market impact)

The Nike Locker Room has been a huge success for the brand. It dramatically increased Nike.com traffic from Hong Kong and secured multiple engagements from 40 percent of participants.

Most importantly, sneaker speculators are a thing of the past for Nike Hong Kong. Additional results:

• 74.5 percent increase in website page views to 1.3 million views
• 40 percent of members preordered products more than once
• 45,700 Locker Room subscription members have connected with Facebook
• 87 percent increase in unique visitors to Nike.com from Hong Kong versus last year
• 98,000 consumers receive product updates
• 373,000 consumers preordered from the website in the last six months