RUN COOL WITH MUSIC

TitleRUN COOL WITH MUSIC
BrandADIDAS HONG KONG
Product / ServiceRUNNING
CategoryA04. Best Use or Integration of User-Generated Content
EntrantCARAT MEDIA SERVICES Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Entrant Company CARAT MEDIA SERVICES Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Media Agency CARAT MEDIA SERVICES Hong Kong, HONG KONG

Credits

Name Company Position
Eva Li Carat Hong Kong Senior Planner
Jacky Lam Carat Hong Kong Media Executive
Fiona Li Carat Hong Kong Media Executive
Jason Huen Carat Hong Kong Media Executive
Bryant Chau Carat Hong Kong Senior Digital Media Planner
Alex Chow Carat Hong Kong Planning Manager
Ego Lau Carat Hong Kong Associate Business Director
Pauline Chu Carat Hong Kong Managing Director

The Campaign

Running has always been an individual sport. Running lovers tend to explore, enjoy and participate in running on their own. Yet, runners do need companies, to exchange experience, to give support and advice. People barely have a fixed schedule, location or even mental readiness to run, because they are all busy and stressed. HongKongers want to be successful in their work, social life and health; therefore they are constantly struggling to achieve a balance, without sacrificing any aspects significantly. Running moments are therefore difficult to be tapped into via advertising. On the other hand, we found that music is one key element in the course of running. It is a handy company for runners, especially in nowadays mobile-savvy world. Runners select the songs best match with their running styles, be it slow songs or rhythmical songs, their running style is reflected from the song list. Music becomes the universal language that runners speak.

Results

Running is always the hottest battlefield for sports brands. Different communication messages have filled up every channel. adidas is facing a strong competition on every move. We need to identify an undiscovered but efficient connection point to let adidas stand out from the clutter environment. ‘Running with music’ is our insight. We expand it further by creating a new socializing platform where we can connect with runners in an innovative and engaging way. We partnered with KKBOX, Hong Kong’s biggest online music provider, to create a runner community named ‘Run Cool with Music’, in which different running songlists were stored for runners. In the teaser stage, different types of running songlists were first released in the community by adidas and various key influencers, including famous athletes and singers. Short videos about their selection criteria were also published in the KKBOX that adidas products and brand messages have been softly implanted. Running songlists were categorized to fit in different runners’ requirements, say the songlist of ‘Crazy one-hour night run’ includes all upbeat songs while slower-pace songs are placed in ‘Jogging’. Then, public can create and share their own running songlists via KKBOX to the community by simply including ’adidas’ in the titles of the songlists. In the meantime, they can review others’ songlists and download for their own run. The platform also facilitates the participants to share their opinion on how to create songlist. This function allows a continuous exchanging of ideas and generation of new inspirational songlist. All of the user activities, such as songlist upload and download, will be shared to their social networks The community was successfully established just after two weeks, mainly contributed by songlists generated by users. Runners can thus always grab the freshest entertainment to push through boredom and fatigue from running.

’Running is boring‘ is one of the top three excuses for not running. Under the hectic and stressful life in Hong Kong, runners run in any random circumstance, therefore people want to be entertained even they are running. Music is an inspiration to runners’ uninspired, unentertained, if not routine running experience. They turn into their loved music with their mobile device. According to one’s running style, different songlist will be made. Thus the songlist become an inspiration that lead to more and more songlist by runners.

The campaign resulted in an outstanding performance. adidas became the first brand to leverage on KKBOX to truly engage consumers! During the campaign period, over 300 songlists were made, with over 95% shared via social networks. Also there were over 1,000 downloads of various songlists. Users were also very active in exploring the songlists, with over 2-minute visit time on the mini-site. Users got inspired from others’ songlist and attempted to create their own. The campaign has been a win-win-win situation for adidas, KKBOX as well as the consumers. It proved that music is more than just a company, but also a way to connect runners. More importantly, this community is truly substantial. As long as runners need inspirations and dialogues, the community is worthwhile to exist. Listening to adidas running songlists has become the latest running culture in Hong Kong. Let’s Run Cool with Music Together!