Nike's quick-on-its-feet Liu Xiang reaction sets social marketing benchmark

The ad (pictured) featured an airbrushed Liu with the Chinese copy beside stating:

Who dares to put your dignity at stake

Who dares to start from scratch when you were at the peak once, at the risk of losing everything

Who dares to venture out

Who dares to fall down

Greatness dares

This is the second time Nike has posted a tailored reaction to its sponsored Olympics athlete with a Chinese adaption of its global 'Find Your Greatness' campaign this year. In 2008, it tweaked its original ad into a salute for Liu when he tripped in similar fashion at the Beijing Games.

Samuel Mak, managing director of Madison Communications, said his own friends have circulated Nike’s Liu Xiang ad after his withdrawal from the race yesterday on Facebook and Weibo, and have seen mostly positive comments.

"Nike’s creative reaction is just-in-time and very in tune with the sentiment of the Chinese people," he said.

Jeanne Huang, Nike's communications director for Greater China told Campaign Asia-Pacific that such a quick reaction was only possible because of a large four-agency team made up of Wieden+Kennedy, AKQA, Razorfish, and Mindshare. The foursome are a dedicated team to follow the Olympic developments closely for Nike, and to execute branded reactions at the right moments-of-truth to help amplify the brand's message.

"It was actually a social media experiment", revealed Huang, one that turned out to be relatively successful. When asked if copy was prepared or pre-planned, Huang explained that even though the team projected some possible scenarios in mind, it was still difficult to predict specific outcomes in the Games, such as race disqualifications or actual medal placements.

"The 'Find Your Greatness' brand message is very flexible because regardless of winning or losing, one is still 'great'. It is a simple and powerful brand message sent with only one purpose - to inspire," Huang said.

The global campaign was adapted for China, as the word 'greatness' in Mandarin can be perceived as linguistically too heavy. "In English, you say, 'you're great' - its more commonplace," she explained.

"Greatness needed to be redefined in China as the centrepiece of the global brand message. Also, we wanted to pay respect to the intensity of the games, and cherish how it brings out the potential in individuals, because the pressure to achieve greatness in China can be very crushing," Huang elaborated.

Nike already bought televison spots on CCTV-5, the official local broadcaster of the Games, but saw another opportunity in social media because of its immediacy and its ability to connect in real-time to consumers.

"The key word to our social media approach in China was 'your' - that is the middle ground between greatness and the ordinary, and the connector between the athletes and ordinary Chinese people."

In general, the expectation of sports marketing has changed since the last Olympics, Adrian Toy, head of APAC marketing at Puma, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "Things are a lot faster now with the integration of social media platforms as consumers expect a response within minutes of an event finishing," he said.

As a fellow sports brand that is also a non-sponsor of the Olympics, Puma is limited in what it can actually do, but has taken a similar branding mindset as Nike. "It's not just whether an athlete wins or loses, it's about how quickly we can react to the situation which requires a lot of upfront planning combined with flexibility".

For Puma's key asset Usain Bolt, the brand had pre-written stories ready to go with embargo restrictions before Bolt's 9.63-second win in the 100-metre men's final.

Brands that Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang has endorsed include Nike, Coca-Cola, Amway’s Nutrilite, Visa, Yili, Lenovo, Bank of Communications, Tsingtao Beer, among others.

BMW, Coke, and Qingdao have posted these reactions below on their enterprise weibo accounts, citing similar content to Nike but not getting the same level of social buzz.

Jeremy Walker, managing director of GolinHarris, Hong Kong, pointed out that unfortunately Liu Xiang bore "the weight of a nation as well as considerable commercial obligations on his ankle— in particular Nike who used his image extensively across China in recent years, no doubt as part of their Olympic strategy to counter the official IOC sponsor Adidas".

When asked to provide commentary, Adidas declined to do so for its competitor Nike, but made a reference to its adiBand Olympic campaign, which approximately 2,000,000 consumers have gotten free wristbands to show their support for Chinese athletes.

When asked if there was a possibility that Liu Xiang may lose his Nike sponsorship, Peter Mack, executive director of marketing for Greater China at Landor Associates, said for this case, brands should not halt their sponsorships right away, otherwise they would seem "heartless".

"In fact, they should create brand stories relating to this 'tragedy'. Otherwise, they should be careful to do graceful exits. It would be interesting to see which brands are still sticking with Liu Xiang in six months' time," Mack said.

Added to this, Mak said from his past experience working with sports brands, sponsored athletes are valued for their ‘inspirational’ personalities and fighting spirits. Rather than "banking on the absolute definition of winning", it appears that Nike is doing the right thing to capitalise on the sportsmanship of Liu Xiang, since Nike's brand value is focused on training hard and trying one's best.

According to Walker, while Liu failed to perform in Beijing and London, he is still considered a national hero. Brands that have been associated with him during this time would have greatly benefited from the considerable goodwill and publicity he has received.

Andy Yeung, senior account manager of sports-focused PR agency Elite Step, also believed that Liu’s market value will not drop significantly. "Sponsors may take a wait-and-see attitude until after his recovery; or until he decides to make another comeback; or retire," he said.