For Nike, a hashtag goes horribly wrong
More from NBR's special SXSW correspondent.
Former Y&R creative director Vaughn Davis is founder of social media-focused agency The Goat Farm. Based in Auckland, he is currently in the US, where he attended the South by Southwest Interactive conference (aka SXSW) in Austin, Texas. He filed the below report Wednesday.
Nike+ Fuel is the hottest product at South by Southwest.
Imagine the digital wrist display from the movie Out of Time, except as a sleek matt black wristband. Its motion sensor connects via your iPhone to a personal movement and exercise goal plan, through a very slick interface, using social and personal prompts to keep you on track. It's also a watch.
The retail experience here in Austin is one of the best I've ever experienced and will probably form part of an entirely different and gushing post.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Because across the road from the Nike+ Fuel retail venue is a block-long digital billboard, telling the whole world (including queueing customers like me and BBDO digital supremo Adam Good) all about the product, and the Twitter hashtag they want us to use: #counts.
Except in this particular image, it doesn't quite read that way.
Footnote: when we pointed it out, the image had been there for three days ... amazingly, not one of the 20,000 geeks here was dirty-minded enough to notice it. Who says antipodeans aren't different?
(Editor's note: No, we won't put Vaughn's photo on NBR. But you can view it here. Content may offend.)
MORE - READ VAUGHN'S FIRST SXWS REPORT: Viral is a dirty word
Vaughn Davis
Sat, 17 Mar 2012
Sat, 17 Mar 2012
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For Nike, a hashtag goes horribly wrong
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