Nike has this $50 wristband called Nike + Sport Band, which enables you to record your distance and time while your run. You can then upload all this info on the Nike Plus site, keep a log of your runs, set goals and milestones and also participate in an online community for runners (you can monitor the progress of your buddies, challenge fellow runners to a virtual running competition, talk trash etc.)

The idea for the Nike Human Race was to see how many people from around the world would do a 10,000-meter (6.2 mile) race, all starting at the same time. All you had to do was sign up online, show up the day of the race with your wristband at a designated Nike location in 26 cities (many at Nike Towns), record the run and upload it.

I don’t know how exactly many runners they ended up getting (they say “millions”) but they logged about 3,000,000 miles worldwide and a heck of a lot of buzz. Nike managed to build even more brand equity (Nike = Challenge the Status Quo), bring runners together under the Nike banner, get many new runners join in for their first 10K ever, drive traffic to stores worldwide, sell more Nike Sport Bands, sell Human Race gear, raise money for charity, create a book around the “Day The World Stopped to Run” and get people like me to blog about it.

I love fresh ideas and we need more of them in our business. If you want to think outside the box about your marketing, look outside the music business and borrow (steal) ideas for groundbreaking marketers like Nike.

Panos

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