Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Approved: Foot Locker and NBA Stars Create a Buzz


It is no surprise that celebrity endorsements wield a powerful influence on the buying decisions of consumers. The Nielsen Company furthered the impact of this when they revealed in this study that 64 percent of adult U.S. Internet users who follow a celebrity also follow a brand – this means the celebrity follower is four times more likely to follow a brand than the average U.S. adult online.”
It is clear that Foot Locker understands this based on the media blitz they launched last week.  Here is a look at what Foot Locker did and how they used multiple channels to drive home their message.
Foot Locker enrolled the talents of NBA stars James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony to humorously promote their clothing line. See one of the commercials here 
My personal favorite was this commercial featuring Carmelo Anthony and “Melo number 5” 
To engage fans even more and utilize humor in doing so, Foot Locker created a behind-the-scenes look at the commercials. Take a look at the commercials for a closer look.
 
 
Understanding that one marketing channel is not nearly sufficient to promote a product line, Foot Locker further drove home their message with social media via Facebook and Twitter. Note the use of humor in both.  
Foot Locker also utilized Twitter  to promote the product line by utilizing the hashtag,  #approved. Note also how the use of word approved fits nicely into their branding and matches their celebrity endorsement theme.
Foot Locker further drove home their message with tweets from the celebrities themselves to create more of a buzz about the clothing line and even partnered with @sportsnation on Twitter.
Only time will tell in how successful these ads will be in driving online and in-store sales for Foot Locker.  One thing is for sure though: Foot Locker put some serious strategy into the ads. If creating a buzz was their goal, they certainly have been successful: as one of the ads is already being talked about by ESPN as the best spot of the year.
Retailers, this Foot Locker example is just one on how marketers have successfully used celebrity endorsements to create emotion and motivate consumers to buy. More examples can be found here. 
As a retail marketer, have you used celebrities in your marketing efforts?  What was your strategy and thought process in doing this?  Did you utilize multiple marketing channels? Did you, like Foot Locker use a cohesive message and theme in your marketing? Have you ever brought celebrities in-store via celebrity cut-outs or other point-of-purchase marketing for an even more complete marketing effort?

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