Nike tries to get consumers to jog on the World Wide Web

The athletic footwear giant Nike is trying to bolster its "street" credentials by going one-on-one with consumers on-line. An extensive print and outdoor-media campaign began in June eschews Nike's evocation of the emotional drama of sports to focus instead on interactivity.

Instead of portraying athletes wearing Nike's ubiquitous logo, the advertisements, by Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore., feature photographs of Nike sneakers accompanied by e-mail addresses that refer slyly to the marquee athletes who endorse the shoes.

Consumers who go on-line to send e-mail to the addresses in the ads receive automated replies from Nike, which direct them to other World Wide Web sites offering additional product information. "Every shoe has a story to tell," said Chris Zimmerman, advertising director for North America at Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. "These ads are really about showing that the product speaks for itself," he added. "This is really the first time we have ever done anything like this." One ad presents a shoe named the Air Foamposit 1 along with the e- mail address penny "Hey, thanks for the e-mail. So you've seen the new Air Foamposit 1, also known as Penny's new space boot. Pretty cool huh? You probably haven't had a chance to really study em cuz Penny's always moving so fast, so check out http://www.breakudown.com." And e-mail to rmiller "So you've seen Reggie Miller's new Air Total Max, huh? Now when you finish practicing your jumpers, go check out http://www.makeitrain.com and witness the ultimate ride for sinkin' threes." Those curious enough to follow the computer's suggestion must then use Web browsers like the Netscape Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer to enter the Web addresses and gain access to the Web sites. Asked why Nike did not simply include the Web site addresses in the ads, Zimmerman replied that "it's more interactive" to present only the e-mail addresses. Besides, he added, "We don't think of them as Web sites so much as we think of them as `sitelets,' all linking back to Nike." The print portion of the multilayered, multimedia campaign is appearing in magazines like Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone. The outdoor ads are plastered on billboards, phone kiosks and bus shelters in major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Nike officials would not disclose the campaign's budget, nor would they provide any information on the number of visitors to Nike's sites. Wieden & Kennedy has also developed a variation on the campaign, which focuses on a single shoe at a time, for television and radio. In one of the TV spots now running on ESPN and MTV, the camera focuses on the Air Hawk Flight basketball sneaker, which sits on a dashboard as a car passes through a tollbooth. The audio track of the spot, which seemingly comes from the car radio, is an announcer's play-by-play calling of a basketball game involving Gary Payton of the Seattle Supersonics, who endorses the shoe. As the car drives into the toll lane, the announcer simultaneously reports that the player "drives down the lane." As the toll light turns green, and the gate goes up, the announcer chants: "He's got it! Nothing but the bottom of the cup!" The interactive campaign seems to be a high-tech extension of a campaign Nike began almost two years ago. That campaign, which appeared only in print and outdoor media, presented photographs of single shoes, too, but instead of e-mail addresses there were toll-free telephone numbers. Callers were treated to prerecorded conversations between the athletes who endorsed the shoes and unidentified Nike employees discussing the shoes' attributes. But Karen Brown, management supervisor at Wieden & Kennedy, said, "This is really much more ambitious" than the previous campaign. Asked if there were enough consumers with access to the Internet to interact with the campaign, Brown said, "You don't have to hit the Web site to get the ad." According to Zimmerman, Nike has no plans to use the e-mail it receives for market research. "We don't do too much research before doing a commercial," he said. To fully appreciate some of the e-mail addresses, consumers need extensive knowledge of sports. What, for example, does one make of zo

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