Join Bode...or not
If you're watching the Olympics, you've probably seen all of the "Join Bode" ads running , a.k.a. Nike. You'll also see that JoinBode.com is an official sponsor of the Olympics.
The sole purpose of the ads appears to be to drive viewers to joinbode.com. So I'm thinking with the gobs of money Nike is spending on its Olympic sponsorship, joinbode.com is going to be a fantastic, groundbreaking site that integrates TV and online like never before.
Wrong. Aside from some decent flash work, it's mostly one of those "navigate through a virtual environment" concepts that we've been seeing for years. You know the ones - they're slow and any interesting content or functionality is buried because you have to wander through the site to stumble upon it. No difference here.
It's mostly videos of Bode rambling on about a variety of topics like mental training, validation and limits (who cares?). There are a couple of games in there where you're a bear and you have various tasks to do, like pushing a sled or sucking a drink through a straw. I get the sled training tie in, but not quite sure why I'm a bear.
The one interesting part that allows users to leave their own inspriational messages is totally buried and takes a few reads to understand what you're supposed to do.
I just don't get it. Nike is investing tons of money in Olympic sponsorship to drive viewers to this site. What do I get from this? Are these boring sound bites supposed to inspire me somehow? What's the target audience here? Unless you're a hardcore Bode fan, it's pretty lackluster. What's the goal of this site?
The Olympics offers an unprecedented opportunity for integrating on-air and online - driving the viewing audience to experience aspects of the Olympics that they cannot watch on air. I don't want to watch canned Bode videos. If you want me to "join Bode" take me to him. I want to join him AT the Olympics - take me to the village, let me see what his schedule looks like, let him blog so I can see what he's doing today. Who did he meet today? What's he wearing? What's it like hanging out with the US Olympic team?
This site under delivers on its message. There was a time when Nike's ads were inspiring. Oh well... I guess there's always Beijing.
2 Comments:
It's easy to criticize, but I wholeheartedly agree.
This thing is a stuttering insult to Nike's high standards of iconic advertising.
My favorite *inspirational comment* posted to joinbode:
"One thing I learned in life is never use the new skis when it really counts."
Goes to show that good UGC can salvage an otherwise limp project, whether it's brand-on or not.
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