It’s a :30 spot in black and white, with Tiger Woods standing still.  He says nothing.  He blinks.  The voice over is of his father, Earl Woods, who passed away in 2006. He is talking to his son, and says, “Tiger…I am more prone to be inquisitive; to promote discussion.  I want to find out what your thinking was, I want to find out what your feelings are, and…did you learn anything?” It flashes to a black background and the simple, iconic Nike swoosh.

That’s it. The whole ad.

As I’ve considered this spot, I’ve heard and read many other opinions. Donny Deutsch went on the Today Show to discuss it.  The full video is here, but the bottom line is that he likes it. Although I didn’t watch The View this morning (nor will I ever, unless threatened with serious physical harm), I did (unfortunately) watch their opinion of the spot online.  You can see it here. Barbara Walters asks, “will this make you buy Nike?”  With no real response, she asks it again.  Although Ms. Walters is great at many things, I think it’s clear she has never done any substantial brand marketing.  TV commercials are not a call to action to go out and buy, that’s what coupons are for.  How many TV commercials or online videos have you seen that have incited you to purchase something? It’s possible, but it isn’t likely.

This spot is about building brand power, and I think Nike has a home run with this spot. No, the video itself will not make a person turn off the computer (or the TV), drive to the store and buy something from Nike.  But what it will do in many people is stir an emotion.  Not the same emotion, it will be different in each person, but when you are standing at your local sporting goods store with black Adidas shorts to your left and black Nike shorts to your right, you will likely be driven to purchase either by subconsciously weighing price value or emotion.  You may not associate this spot with your Nike purchase decision (good brand building isn’t tied back to any one event) but chances are, you’ll go with the Nike shorts because they stir some sort of visceral reaction within you, even if it’s not entirely positive.

I could speculate about why Nike went this direction, or why Tiger approved it.  I have heard the very angry admonish this spot, and the very forgiving say that it is the perfect mood for his return to sports.  I could speculate that Nike has put themselves in a fatherly position by pushing creative of this nature, but I don’t know that for sure.

What I do know is this: I’ve been thinking about the Tiger Woods Nike video all day. And that, my friends, is effective advertising.

(video embedded above, go to original article if you can’t see it)

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Disclosure: I am professionally associated with Volkswagen.  That said, I had absolutely nothing to do with this ad, I found it on YouTube randomly.  I wish I did though, it cracks me up! It also will probably give me nightmares.  Enjoy.

“Social Media doesn’t apply to us“.  Oh really?  That’s like saying the economy doesn’t apply to you because you aren’t a banker.  Just because you don’t deal with online media and networks on a day to day basis, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t involved.  I remember being in conversation in the early and mid 1990s with people that were pretty sure that “this internet thing” was just a fad.  It was going to be a place where people could play games and waste time by sending messages back and forth.  While both those things are certainly true and prevelant, it would be challenging to find somebody these days that doesn’t think that the internet is so much more.  In the same way, social media isn’t just a fad.  When MySpace started making it onto the evening news, companies and individuals alike poo-pooed social media as a fad, or something that “just the kids did”.  Today it is so much more.  If you and your brand (your company, your music, your writings, your thoughts) aren’t participating in the social media forum, you are already behind.

“We need to control the message, so we can’t get involved“.  This is a statement based on fear, and some of it probably righteously so.  Companies (particularly non-profits) are paralyzed by the fact that there may actually be a multi-way conversation about a product, service or idea.  In a closed room, dozens of PR and Marketing gurus gathered for weeks on end to come up with the message that was going to be broadcast regarding Product X and they don’t want to mess with that.  What if somebody doesn’t like Product X?  Certainly we don’t want others to know about it! We cannot build a place where people talk about our company and we have no control over the conversation.  I’ve got news for you, Mr. CEO…they already are talking about you, you just aren’t involved.  This is akin to burying your head in the sand.  What you don’t know can’t hurt you, right?  Wrong.

This blog is going to explore the community that is happening all over the world, and we’re going to talk about how you can get involved.  There are some companies that do an amazing job at participating, reacting and guiding (companies like Dell and Ford) but unfortunately there are too many more that don’t.

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun.