Your own personal Kaepernick
It’s coming up on two months since Nike released their controversial Colin Kaepernick ad, and the results are in — the “backlash” has been nothing but good for Nike. In short:
- Nike saw a huge surge in mentions on social media that stayed high well past the initial ad release.
- Nike started selling tons more product, actually selling out of more stuff than usual.
- Their stock price went higher than ever.
- They’ve positioned themselves as courageous risk takers and everyone is calling them brave.
Of course, in reality, it is pretty clear that, while it was clearly controversial, it was not necessarily that risky. I liked Scott Galloway’s quick analysis of this:
“Nike registers $35B in revenues — $15B domestically and $20B abroad. Two-thirds of Nike consumers are under the age of 35. A younger consumer who can afford $150 Flyknit racers likely has substantial disposable income and lives in a city. The term for this cohort? Progressive. Of the $20B international customer base, how many believe the US is currently a “beacon on a hill” and is handling race issues well? I’ll speculate, none. Nike has risked $1–3B in business to strengthen their relationship with consumers who account for $32–34B of their franchise. The math? Nike just did it.”
Of course, Nike has money on their side. They have plenty of budget to make considered, data-driven decisions using tons of market research, to pre-test their campaign, and to hire the most respected and well-known creative minds to create their spots. We work with some big clients, but most companies simply don’t have anywhere near the kind of budgets Nike has when they approach making a video.
I watch my clients, especially people at smaller companies and startups, struggle with the idea of taking risks. And by “taking a risk” I don’t necessarily mean wading out into political waters and taking on the big issues of our time; it can mean making a piece that talks about your brand or product in a new way, or really calling out your competitors and saying why you think you’re better, or just making a piece of marketing content that’s emotional and narrative rather than simply informational.
When it comes to creating marketing video, people are mostly risk averse. Nobody wants to be the person that creates content that falls flat, or worse, actually does harm to their company. So how do you do what Nike just did: find the risk to take that’s not really a risk? How do you do something that’s bold but not bad?
Let’s think a little more about that Nike Kaepernick ad. What if, instead of using all the scary language about risk and boldness and bravery and expensive market research and good vs. bad publicity, we just said this:
Nike considered the audience they wanted to reach, focused their thinking, and created a message that resonated with that audience specifically.
Yes, they had to decide that they didn’t care that their message wouldn’t resonate with everyone. But most products aren’t actually targeted at everyone, anyway — does the messaging about them really need to resonate with everyone?
Chances are, especially if you’re at a smaller company, you’re not making a product that is going to end up in every home in the country, or on every single desktop in the world. Chances are, you are targeting a subset of consumers.
That means, really, that you likely already know who your audience needs to be, and that you already know a lot about them. If you can narrow down your audience, and commit to them, it’s suddenly becomes a lot easier to uncover those “risks” that aren’t particularly risky.
Worry less about who won’t like the video, or who won’t find it particularly useful, and more about who is absolutely going to love it, who it will really speak to, who it will resonate with. That’s the part of what Nike has done with the Kaepernick campaign that any company can safely emulate.
If you’re making video, speaking authentically to your audience is always the strongest move. It allows you to be bold without going out on a limb. It will allow you to find your own personal Kaepernick, and take that less risky risk.
