Present Generation

Digtally Fueling Nike

Nike gets held up a lot in marketing meetings, conference and articles. 

Less for their advertising these days.  Arguably it's not as profound, insightful or compelling as it once was. Though that view tends to come from middle aged advertising people not teen aged target markets who are rather engaged.

However, what is certain is that what they are saying is getting relatively less interesting over time to what they are doing. They are doing some increasingly really interesting things.

Nike+ has been out for five years, which feels really old.  A standard feature in most running products.

The Fuel Band had a nice boom on release.  Strong release amongst the keeners, still a question if it's big with the regular people yet but that's just an observational conclusion. 

No matter, two things are very interesting.

1. The are doing real social not formulaic social. Communicating and celebrating across the entire brand and all its touchpoints.  Giving people something to talk about (the product) and then incorporating that naturally and honestly into comms.  I loved their consumer facing Fuel Band dashboard even before they asked to feature me on the front page following a little jog with livestock in Spain.  The ongoing football academy reality like saga on their France football fanpage or any one of hundreds of other micro-narratives across all their owned media.

2. Their front sales staff are getting skilled up in new ways.  In the Covent Garden running store the other week I noticed an employee with the role Digital Specials on his name tag.  Basically, given the technology products starting to come out they are installing retail floor experts to teach fellow staff and consumers on what the products are and how they work in regular language for regular people.  Seems obvious but it is amazing how few retailers communicate well, in the frontlines, with real customers. Retail seen too easily as purely as cost centre or topline revenue driver rather than brand experience lynchpin.

The second point is really interesting as Nike seems on the verge of becoming arguably the first retail goods company to incorporate technology deeply and meaningfully into their products.  The Nike+ Basketball product blows my mind, and it seems smart clothing after years of promises is coming out soon too.

The future is distributing itself a little better in sport these days.

My Summer of Run

It is a grand summer of sport in Britain this 2012.

Amidst the watching, supporting and cheering for me is a lot of running.  Well, not as much as I need but a fair bit.

When arriving in a new city, as a visitor or new inhabitant, two feet gives a sense of the scale, variety, inhabitants and general air of a city.

Rather than precisely mapped out routes I embrace the likelihood of getting lost by picking a destination to run to, and ultimately see where I end up. Oyster and Visa cards on hand for escape if needed and on many cases they have been.

This September my wife and I are running for Chateau Pichon's team in the Bordeaux Marathon.  Not the most serious of marathons given the fancy dress, wine sampling and restorative oyster stations. Nonetheless 26.2 miles through the greatest vineyards of Bordeaux is still 26.2 miles under the clock.

So for me, it has been the summer of run.  These are my 10 favorite so far.

1. A regular route along Regents Canal - usually to the concrete bound East and periodically to the vacant green West.

2. The Dutch seaside outside Den Hague.  Yes, the dutch have a seaside. No, it's not worth going out of your way to see. Unless you like running on brutally soft sand with bitter unrelenting sand filled wind pummeling your face.

3. Amsterdamn on Queen's Day - run ended at 10am with streets filled with kids performing their talents (not all with imposing dads looking and texting for record contracts.)

4. Primrose Hill track - old school narrow track in leafy ambiance for speed sessions (which generally aren't that speedy.) Chariots of Fire soundtrack should be on loop.

5. Running of The Bulls - Pamplona, my shortest run, about 200m into the stadium, of total chaos.  Nobody told me that once you've survived the bull run, they close you in the ring and release 5 more bulls for recreational goring. 

6. Richmond - the old royal herds of red deer for hunting are much more tame yet still wild.

7. Montmartre - my old route around Sacre Coeur when I first moved to Paris, still worthy of a lap around the hill each visit. Though I no longer slip on the tricky reverse camber paving stones on dewy mornings.

8. Canal du Midi - outside Revel in the South of France, technically a feeder canal from Bassin de St.-Ferrol that gave 10 miles powered by the previous nights frog's legs and Gaillac.  This was a good one, really good.

9. Cairngorm - not a run but hike atop the Cainrgorm range for skiing in May.  The world offers many peculiar experiences.

10. The Olympic Torch - I didn't run with it, I did run 6 miles to view it with all the middle aged hipsters of Shroeditch.

With the Olympics starting Friday more runs of note are expected.  Bring it.

2000 Push Up Challenge - It's On

Following a social media frenzy accross the Northern Hemisphere over the past 24hrs an official 2000 Push Up Challenge has crowdsourced itself.

Tonight, it's on.  20:00 GMT.

Offical rules as sanctioned by the 2k-PUCA (aka the 2000 Push Up Challenge Association) are as follows:

1. 2000 pushups in two weeks, wherever, whenever

2. No cheatsies

3. Participants post progress daily on Twitter with hashtag: "@macfarbt  0/2000 #2000pushupchallenge"

4. Eligibility period - 20:000 GMT Wednesday April 18 through 19:59 GMT Wednesday May 2nd

5. Lagards can enter any time up completion - no cheatsies

Eternal glory for all finishers.  Maybe a badge or something too.

2000 Push Up Challenge

There has been an awesome challenge around the agency lately.  You know, the type of thing the pre-professional blogging world would have loved - the minutia of life.

The 2000 Push Up Challenge

It was a pretty big deal, we even discussed making an app to adjudicate and make sure nobody cheated. 

Or better yet - a head mounted RFID system integrated with a GoPro camera to enable a real time gamified rewards system synergized with the open API for our Nike Fuelbands.  But the APIs not really available yet.

Instead, I just made a logo.  Using the immensely powerful graphic design platform everyone is talking about: PowerPoint.

Rules are easy - over two weeks complete 2000 push ups.

Do them when you want, at your pace.

Averages out to 143 per day.

It's a lot more than you think.

I finished yesterday. 

Others are doing it today. 

Pretty sure this will become the next big thing.

 

Me & Skiing

Skiing has been a big part of my life.

It was the first sport I every did properly, at two years old.  Then became progressively a regular activity, a consumption, an obsession, and then ultimately led to an education and my first profession which later put me into my current profession.

My relationship with skiing has never really entered my mind until recently.  It would be what you call a passion.  Though for a lot of more recent time been hidden. I have not always loved it, at times hated it, but it has always been what I do and the circumstances around me enabled me to do so.  Nonetheless, it has greatly shaped me and I am increasingly grateful for this fact.

This year, for the first time in my life, I went on a ski vacation.  Two weeks dedicated to skiing.  Sure I have skied over 200 days in single years, skied in every month of the year and travelled to places without a competitive or professional objective to just ski, freely.  But this was different, a real ski vacation with no obligation, two weeks in the mountains when the mountains are no longer close.  Skiing  for the joy of it, the challenge and the ancillary activities were the focus.

Breaking out of the routine of the sport and thinking about its significance, to me, personally, has been really valuable over the past couple weeks.  There is something physically about being in the mountains that rejuvenates.  There is something mental that puts pieces in order.

In many ways how I ski now, and probably always was, an allegory for life.  I no longer do any of the skiing I used to, that be running race courses, but still enjoy freeskiing the groomed runs.  However, I am drawn more and more to the investment of hiking off to an untouched peak or couloir.  Not so much to conquor but more for the process of analysing where to go, and the journey to get there with the perpetual risk analysis of the cliffs, cornices and glaciers underfoot. The reward is the all consuming journey down the pitch spotted from afar, executing the planned turns but reacting to the snow and slide conditions that change with every turn.

I came to the mountains to think and have come away with a clear embracing of a need to pursue challenge and pursue risk, but smart risk, it as much of what I do every day as possible.  It is easy to lose in the day to day professional world where the cult of rationalization removes risk, therefore the reward.  Ultimately, when we perform a sport we are hoping to channel a sense of greatness, accomplishing something new or overcoming a fear (be it risk of falling, injury or embarrassment.)  This is a healthy drive.  A drive I see and hear from many skiers, regardless their ability from first timer to top ranked in the world.

It has been a great trip.  Personally, accomplished a lifelong obsession of skiing the Chamonix Valley and in particlar the legendary Vallee Blanch. 

It was also a visit to the past, catching old team mates, athletes I onced coached and many good current friends at a Skier-X World Cup in Les Contamines.  Gave them hugs and hi-fives, while today I see how they are doing at the X-Games in Aspen - if they win, clearly the boost of my precense made the difference.  Clearly.

It has been good, very good couple weeks.  Something in spirit to continue for the year.  Skiing is who I am, what I do, and everytime I go a reminder of what I want to be.  That is good.  Nothing too deep and philisophical, just fun and fulfilling.  Nothing more.

Anyways, back to regular blogging about advertising soon enough.

 

Long Photo - Bike Brussels

Went to Belgium.  Didn't bike to get there but did bike once there.  Not intense cycling mind you, the sort with a basket and mud flaps.  

When exploring a city on foot you are drawn into the flow of traffic and magnetically pulled to major squares and busy streets lined with restaurants featuring photo menus, interchangeable in any city .

On the bike an effortless but brisk pace draws you down quiet streets, through parks and to where every day life happens.  It gives simply a better feel for the real city pulse.  Not the pulse planned by the tourism board with buses full of plodding flocks from Missisipi of Bavaria, the one well anticipated and pre-empted by hawkers of purses or little statues of whatever tall building or monument the locals are known for.

Yes, was a lovely weekend for two wheeled adventures.

Why do all bikes have chains?

They don't have to.

Old production model of a Pugeot.

Does Sport Need Drama Enhancement?

I love watching sport in America, live or televised.  Nobody know how to make sport so dramatic.  Nothing highlighted this more than growing up in Canada and during Olympic Games flipping between our national coverage on CBC and US coverage on NBC.  CBC was great for unbiasedly covering every sport, live.  NBC drenched the whole games with drama and pomp you forgot it was all tape delayed and ignored the fact that other countries competed in and won at Olympics. 

I loved watching sport in America, until I made Europe home.

  
Watching sport in France is very different.  They don't make sport all that dramatic.  Instead, the fans have great eyes, ears and heart that appreciate the natural drama.  No need to manufacture drama.

Last week we puttered out to Roland Garros and caught a handful of matches, including Canadian Daniel Nestor, the winningest active tennis player (doubles specialist) took on a French team. The hometown crowd certainly wanted France to prevail but gave great applause to all great shots by any team and a standing ovation to Nestor and his partner when the won the match. 

Television coverage is very understated, and apart from the ongoing lamenting of a glaring absence of any French players in the second week (again) the coverage of the game is restrained and elegant.  Sport literacy certainly is high.  Even those in the corporate free-be sets clearly know the game and are not there just to do deal and air out the casual corner of their wardrobe.

A couple big months of sport are ahead, the World Cup of course along with the The Open (golf) and Tour de France.  The latter two we will enjoy in person and further our unofficial studies into national psyches through sport.

Pounce

White Circus - Alps Edition

It's winter here in France and if you haven't heard they have some rather nice skiing.  So upon waking up aboard the night training one Saturday morning and hauling up to the top of Les Arcs I was surprised to navigate soupy fog to find nice looking pistes spotted from the chair lift.



Eventually got to my landmark and it started what proved to be a nice first day skiing the alps.
 



Naturally it all worked up an appetite so a couple light lunches throughout the day were in order.




After a good nice sleep on my light Savoie meals it was time the next morning for a serious breakfast.



Apart from apparel my ski great didn't make it over with me from Canada yet so the fine folks at the rental shop were happy to assist me with some questionable gear.  Day on I split my boot in half.  Day two, with blue skies and powder the DIN on my bindings needed a hefty crank to maximum resistance.
 



The French seem not to like fresh powder, especially 50cm of it. 
 



This lift provided 5 hours of uninterrupted fresh lines - in bound heli skiing really.   Again, bless the French and their dislike of fresh powder. 





Short hikes found exceptional tracks.





Behind this serious face is a very happy man.

Avalanche danger was extreme, very unstable.   Dissuading me from the steepest and deepest lines as I was on my own and couldn't find the avalanche self rescue app on my mobile.

But one final short hike to a nice peaks with stable looking looking slope was too tempting. 


After that, back on the train to Paris in time for early bed and off to work Monday morning.  Think I'm going to like this...

Cannon Shot

Cannon Shot from Brett Macfarlane on Vimeo.

Sorry two people who unexpectedly suffered a fly-by.  I thought the canyon at Mt. Baker was clear to ensure a smooth test of a hybrid Scorcese single shot with Paul Greengrass' Bourne shaky action cam filming style in an Matchstick Production inspired shot. 

364 to 2010

The clock outside our office suddenly got lively tonight.  A prediction, this 2010 Olympic thing is going to be a bit of big deal around these parts this year. 

One year to go:

Time stands still:

It's now an Olympic year:

Performance Technology

Spent the day watching a 2010 Winter Olympic test event at the Winter Olympic Park.  On tap was the men's and women's relay cross country relay sprints.  The event was outstanding and well run.  But I was most obsessed with the stuff.  I love high performance sports for the equipment.  Downhill ski racing was my sport but I was pleased to see the nordic folks rely on just as much gear, and as with any sport where speed is the ultimate objective there is an amazing efficiency in every aspect of the gear.  If any component, contour or ounce of weight doesn't in some way make you faster, it's removed.  I like that discipline. 

On the flipside of that is what's according to Jan Chipase become a norm at Japanese ski resorts.

Air guns to remove snow from your boots before stepping into skis or a snowbaord.  A bit much if you ask me and removes the pleasure of a stomp of the foot and reassuring clunk of engagement in a crisp quiet alpine morning.

Back to the nordic world - Vegard Ulvang, a Norwegian and skiing god was on hand presenting medals.  It reminded me of the mornings when I was a teenager training on the glacier each October in Northern Italy's Val Senales, a glacier that also featured a section for cross country athletes, and each morning being crammed into a tram with sweaty cross country skiers, including Vegard, wearing scientificly advanced technical fabrics before anti-stink technologies were discovered.  To be blunt it was disgusting and once made me vomit, but that may have been the altitude sickness. 

But today, boy Vegard I must say you and the rest of the skiny ski folks smelt good.  Much better than those mornings many years ago.  I would have confronted you at the time but was afraid you'd throw one of your Olympic medals at me.  So thank you fabric scientists.  Noses everywhere thank you.

The Devil's Jockey

 A little branch of attitude from the Irish branch of my family, living in Seattle these days.

Theatre of track

Sunday is my long run day.  The other week was in Seattle and near where I was staying there was a great classic track stadium in the Shoreline neighbourhood.  The Western US, in particular Oregon and Washington, has these great track and field facilities, built of old growth timber, often nestled amongst a forest.  Having spent some time in these facilities it's easy to see the spirit and feel of these places embodied in the Nike marketing creative in particular the early work.  Hayward Field, which just hosted the US Olympic trials is the mothership .  Nike has a great running blog with some of the results.  Would be great to run a few laps on that track.

After my run in the Seattle took a few shots of the track.

 
The coach and media booth is fabulous.

Really liked the hurdles spontaneously scattered along the closing100m stretch.

The smell of stands is a mix of wood, comforting must and concession stands.  Even walking through when empty instills a bit of the competition nerves/adrenalin.

Good versus evil:

The megaphone is awesome.  Don't see these anymore:

men in tights

Tomorrow marks the start of the greatest work month of the year.  Every morning for three weeks, those living on the West Coast have the privilege of being able to watch live Tour de France coverage and make it to work on time as the winner usually crosses the line around 8:30. 

Note to self, no early meetings...

The Tour is such a grand feat it's hard to actually fathom what it's like completing one stage let alone 21.  The New York times which has a great bi weekly sport focused digital magazine called Play which also publishes quarterly.  They sent one of their writers to try a mountain stage - so enjoy the tour in a new way thanks to his sufferance in The Climb, How Hard Can it Be.

And here's the fan in the stands view...

Even though it's a completely normal and expected part of the 500 channel universe we live in I am still fascinated by the fact I can watch live from my living room a big game on the other side of the planet.  Watching the big match up between Chelsea and Arsenal on Sunday was just this and I always love a good soccer match for the fervent crowds and players.  But the electric atmosphere in the stadium is the one thing that TV sports just cannot recreate. You get a sense but even the formulaic crowd and manager shots don't pass on all the energy.

But with more and more people hauling their digital recording devices to live events it would be a neat addition to the broadcast experience if they could harness the fan in the stands experiences - a kind of man on the street angle.  After a big concert or sporting event I often pop on youtube and flickr the next day to see what the event was like from other angles in the stadium.  Just as teams are employing bloggers it would be great to start affixing some wifi enabled instant replay the broadcast partners could use.  Imagine if the game feed from Sunday's match added this replay to their mix for example. 

Running, running and more running

As pledged in September I've been doing lots of running.  And have been addicted to my Nike+ system.  I'm closing in on 200 miles .  Which may not sound like a lot, but man it's a lot of work.  Since the above photo I've been through three pairs of shoes, I like them fresh.

I've  been recruited to help out a challenge.  Loser wears some hideous short shorts to work.  As I'm always one to promote workplace humiliation you too can join to drive the cause if you're a Nike+ person.

Since getting into running in a big way it's been interesting observing my own absorption in the pursuit.  As adults we often forget what it's like to be totally into something.  Finding a new restaurant, discovering a new band or buying a new sweater all fail to have any significant captivation of your mind.  It's not like when you were a kid/teen.  Back then, when you were into something, you were really really into it.  Reading and rereading magazines for months on end.  Talking about it constantly at lunch in school halls and obsessing over every detail.  And going back to read those magazines again.

It has been neat to get into something again.  Not just for the very act of running, but all the stuff that goes with it.  The big stuff like researching training programs and planning out my weekly runs.  Down to the small stuff like figuring out which socks are best or the difference between gloves (yes, winter running needs the right pair of gloves.)

The thing that has been really cool is that in this day and age, when you get into something it is such an immersive experience. As we become adults, and people busy with life and things like weddings, babies and new loafers, it's easy to under appreciate the power of when someone really gets into something.  And how voraciously you seek out content for it.   This is such an amazing opportunity for a brand to engage and interact.

Much has been said of the Nike+ product and the relationships it drives with runners.  I just discovered Nike has quietly launched a running blog.  Which I've read start to finish and will probably re-read multiple times as I aim for New York.  This is the right way to use web 2.0 to market to me.  I don't even feel marketed to.  You're sharing helpful and interesting information.  It's real.  From real people.  Written in plain English.  Kudos.

Well, I better run off now...

motorizedconvergence

This is sweet.  In the world of film, action sport movies own the title for ever pushing their genre higher.  This sweet little clip for a Friday afternoon shows what convergence looks like in off road motor sports. 

Freedom of Sp---h

I get excited for major sporting events.  Like Le Tour, Wimbledon, World Cup Soccer and naturally the Olympics.  As such I'm undoubted going to blog about these at times.  In particular the Olympics as they are not so much in my backyard, but front yard and in fact everywhere around that. With the games and the whole democratization of information thing thanks to the Internet, some very interesting freedom of speech issues are coming about.

I wholly believe the Olympic movement and their partners have every right to protect their equity, trademarks and images.  The Vancouver games have been very vigilant about this.  Which is fair.  To ensure vigilance as the games ramp up they are sourcing for a "watchdog" organization to troll the the physical world and the Internet for potential infringements.  Which include things such as using the words Olympics, the rings and gold.  Plus 482 other words covered by special legislation and powers handed to VANOC. 

Now, I'm in no position to say this is right or wrong but I can't help but to wonder if I'll see a cease and desist letter at some point for blogging, aka expressing my freedom of speech, about the Olympics.

Technically one could claim this is a commercial enterprise, as I do have those nifty Google Adwords filling my wallet with a penny here and a penny there.

Who knows what will happen but I look forward to seeing how they treat the citizen journalist.  The folks in London seem quite fine with it.  Though many don't love it...

For the record, I actually think the London brand designs are quite fantastic.  Though they did a very poor job launching it will all that marketing speak.  But it holds true to their mission of revitalizing urban London, not sitting on the laurels of the past Great Britannia iconography.

Europes loss, is North America's win

If only we could stop calling is "soccer."

Roger Federer as a religious experience - part II

With another title under his belt today at Wimbledon, I must say that watching Roger Federer continues to be a religious experience.  Though Nadal's performances are also coming close to being beyond superlatives. 

Birds eye

As digitization of photographer further entrenches itself in culture and everybody becomes amateur, and even semi-pro photographers it is oddly startly to see how appreciation for great photographer is almost eroding.  Maybe it's because everything looks great on a two inch LCD screen on a camera, or just our own egoism that we too could snap that same shot if only we had someone setting up the lights for us. 

Great photographers, like a sculpture, make things out of nothing, or find things that others miss out on.  Not just in the sense of capturing "a moment" but litterally finding something that the eye darts past or never knew was there.  This is especially true in sports photography where capturing the "winning moment" pays big bucks.  But we all know from going to an event live, so much is missed in that shot of the "winning moment."

This photo essay by the a contract New York Times photographer Vincent Laforet is amazing in that it shows sporting events in a way that actually brings the three dimensional experience to life, in a 2-d format.  Worth the three minutes watching the essay and through his audio story refresh your appreciation for great photography

Failure of words and Roger Federer as a religious experience.

On the eve of Roger Federer's win, thought it was a great time to highlight this fantastic article from The New York Time's Play Magazine on watching Federer as a religious experience.  Download 20federer.pdf . 

The point is that words describing his game - great, magnificent, amazing, powerful - all fail to truly describe what it's like to watch him live.  Due to excessive and inflated use, words, in particular superlatives, have lost their meaning.

This is particularily troubling for brands that are leaders.  Calling yourself the "best". "cleanest" or "finest" doesn't really mean what they used to.  If anything, people actually distrust the words. 

This article also highlights how hard it is to convey experiential things through media.  Any tourism account faces this.  Take Canada.  How do you convey to someone on the other side of the world what it's like to drive down the Bow Valley outside Banff surrounded by the massive poetic beauty of the mountains dramatically surrounding you as you breathe in pure air with a pine twinge after being filtered by the surrounding pristine forests.  To do so literally is difficult, if not near impossible.  Fortunately, we're not journalists.  Advertising has the tool of creativity to bring these sorts of things to life. 

Unfortunately, so many tourism accounts rely on the cliched "vista shot" with a witty headline.   What a waste.