Confirmed vs. SNKRS
Can social media help Adidas to make up some ground on Nike with the release of its sneaker reservation app?
What do you do when you bring Kanye West on to your books in a deal reportedly worth $10m? You make a third of it back after the first release, while reinventing the way consumers shop for ultra exclusive sneakers, of course.
That’s if you’re Adidas, the German sportswear manufacturer which brought Kanye’s latest design to life and shifted 9,000 units at a price of $350 a pair. It also saw the birth of Confirmed:
A first-of-its-kind sneaker reservation app that will change the way the industry goes to market by simplifying the reservation process and putting the consumer first.
The app looks to make the overnight queueing system a thing of the past, limiting the risk of voilence and eradicating in-store lottery systems. And what a way to do it, supporting a launch from one of the most hyped artists of our generation, Kanye West.
Surely Adidas, the US’ third biggest sports apparel company, isn’t going to lead the way single handedly? Of course not, Nike had to jump on board too!
Just three days before Confirmed launched with the Yeezy Boost, Nike unveiled its own offering, seemingly out of nowhere, titled: SNKRS.
SNKRS essentially looks to do the same as Adidas’ Confirmed app, although Nike is quick to point out that SNKRS isn’t a reservations app, but rather a quicker way to access its fresh and future stock. A subtle way of stating that users still need to get up early to order new releases on the day they drop.
Although the apps aren’t available outside of the US yet, the similarly timed launch provides the perfect opportunity to examine the digital launch techniques and successes for each brand.
The Launch: Adidas Confirmed
Adidas was first to the punch, essentially gifting it a longer lead time and the pride in being the innovator. Not to mention Kanye West’s presence, so how did this shape up?
Adidas announced Confirmed via its global Adidas Originals page on 3rd February, to a potential audience of 26m+ users. Containing an image of an iPhone with an Adidas logo and a short decription of #AdidasConfirmed, the post drove 11,467 likes, comments and shares — an engagement rate of 0.04%.
Adidas Originals posted 79 times in January, attracting an average of 8675 engagements per post. The announcement of Confirmed saw engagement increase by 32%.
The slightly smaller Adidas page, with 20m followers, announced the app at 11pm GMT. It copied the global approach and shared a link to the app with a brief explanation. The update attracted an engagement rate of just 0.012%.
@adidasoriginals broke the news about Confirmed just two minutes before the Facebook announcement. It was posted to 2.4m users and drove 463 retweets and 645 favourites — an engagement rate slightly higher than Facebook at 0.05%.
@kanyewest helped to drive the greatest engagement, linking users to “#YEEZYBOOST ACCESS” and driving 6,000+ interactions. His presence was a huge boost (excuse the pun), with four mentions of #YeezyBoost for every mention of #AdidasConfirmed.
YouTube
This is where Adidas drops the ball. There appears to be no interactive content relating to the Confirmed app yet. Two million people might have watched the launch of Yeezy Season 1 on the Adidas Original YouTube channel, but if you want to know about Confirmed, you’ll have to rely on a review from a source outside of Adidas.
Adidas introduced Instagram users to Confirmed via both the adidasoriginals (4.3m followers) and adidas (3.3m followers) accounts. The launch screen on an iPhone, with copy which name dropped Kanye West, drove 200,000 likes across both accounts. Adidasoriginals attracted an engagement rate of 2.6%, while the slightly smaller adidas page achieved an engagement rate of 2.8%.
Incentive to download
Not content that its sneakerheads would download the app, Adidas turned to Kanye to entice users in to downloading the app. Although it was restricted to those in New York, those downloading Confirmed not only had the chance to get their hands on the Yeezy Boost, but also free tickets to an exclusive Roc City Classic event on 12th February featuring Kanye West.
The Launch: Nike SNKRS
Nike announced SNKRS on 11th February, dubbing it the “ultimate sneaker shop” which will give fans a new “inside source for highly coveted Nike footwear”. But how did Nike approach social for the launch?
Nike’s primary Facebook page features sporadic updates, yet it has amassed an audience of almost 23m users. It is here where Nike chose to announce its new app, in the early hours of the morning (12.20am GMT). Nike’s approach was somewhat similar to Adidas, in that it shared a brief bit of information about the app and its purpose. Nike however relied on a ‘learn more’ call to action button, driving users to the Nike SNKRS website. The post performed poorly by Nike’s standards, attracting an engagement rate of just 0.008%. Engagement with the post was 41% lower than the average engagement rate for the page in 2015.
@Nike launched SNRKS more than an hour earlier than it shared the news on Facebook, introducing the “ultimate sneaker shop” to its 4.5m followers on 11th February. It’s launch was shared a lot later in the day than Adidas’ announcement and included an image containing multiple screens from the app itself. The primary screen focused on the Air Foamposite One “Chromeposite”, the first of the launches within the app. The post generated 1,292 retweets and 1,859 favourites, but many asked how they could access the app without a code. These codes were shared by Nike through its waitlist and also by a few popular Twitter accounts. @Nike’s post drove an engagement rate of 0.07%, slightly higher than Adidas, but it didn’t have Kanye West to fall back on to generate further discussion.
Instead, Nike quickly fed news about the app to its multiple Twitter accounts, creating bespoke videos tailored to the audience of each Twitter account. A nice approach, but one which attracted limited engagement.
Just four minutes after it announced SNKRS, @Nike then shared a video showcasing the full functionality of the app, driving 400+ retweets and 650+ favourites.
YouTube
While Adidas neglected YouTube, Nike didn't, creating an introductory video which was embedded in to several news stories around the world. The resulting outcome led to 35,000+ views in a week, accounting to 17 days worth of views. The figures may not be too impressive, but with 232 likes to just 3 dislikes, its clear Nike’s audience welcomed the approach.
Nike is one of the champions of Instagram, with 12.2m followers on its main account. It broke the news of SNKRS by sharing a video of its interactive popup SNKRS station in New York. Situated on the corner of Bowery and East 3rd Street, the outside of the store acted as one giant LED screen, showing off the app and Nike’s diverse range of trainers. It drew 450,000+ likes on just one update, double that of Adidas’ two updates. Add to that an engagement rate of almost 4% and its clear Nike takes the points on Instagram.
Incentive to download
Nike restricted access to the SNKRS app, granting access to only those with an exclusive code. These appeared to be extremely limited and difficult for fans to get their hands on. This led to some lucky applicants selling their codes on, while reputable Twitter accounts ran competitions to win an access code. Much of Nike’s promotion was ran offline, with @NikeNYC tweeting images of locations where fans could snatch their own codes. Nike teased fans with access to its pop-up store, which appearing during the Nike-dominated NBA All-Star Weekend.
The Inside Scoop on Twitter
Both apps have received mixed responses, although positive mentions greatly outweigh negative for both brands. Here’s a snapshot of some of the most popular reactions.
Verdict
Undeniably, Adidas’ current line-up is enviable, with Kanye West adding to a roster which already includes Pharrell Williams, David Beckham and Rita Ora. Nike was going to have a tough time even registering interest around its app during the Yeezy hype. Both apps have been well received and contained launch products which generated significant interest — key to a successful launch.
Despite the popularity of social, both brands kept an air of exclusivity around the apps, limiting social media content and focussing on those in New York. With Fashion Week and NBA All-Star weekend, this worked well, but a strong demand was always going to leave fans in the lurch and evoke some negative conversation.
Adidas wins in the volume battle, but it’s app seems to have early teething problems and it’s vital that it maintains strong launches after the Yeezy Boost. Nike’s rich media content adds an extra layer to its online content, as it hopes to build an online community through its app. A lack of access codes and no Android offering did slightly hamper Nike’s launch.
It’s early days yet, but both apps look to have the potential to change the way we shop for exclusive releases from both brands. It’ll be interesting to see how this content is promoted online in the coming months. More importantly though, how long do we have to wait to see some exclusive UK launches through the apps?
