Gawker and Nike leap into branded blogging with Art of Speed.
Blog publisher Gawker Media has teamed with Nike to take online journaling in a new direction with a Nike-branded branded blog.
The Art of Speed showcases 15 filmmaker's interpretations of speed. While it does not have any direct advertising, Nike's signature swoosh symbols appear in various places. The filmmakers are not amateurs -- Speed's roster includes a Sundance Film Festival winner, music video directors, animation experts and filmmakers with museum installations. Gawker's other publications, Wonkette, Gizmodo and Defamer, also link to the Art of Speed site.
"This is really one of the first times that a leading brand has used the medium to reach an audience," says Remy Stern, editor of the Art of Speed blog. The blog will add films throughout the one month it will be online.
While there have been unsuccessful attempts like this -- BMW films and Dr. Pepper -- it helps that Nike is a big and recognized brand, Stern says.
"When you have Nike involved in this space, it really demonstrates how useful blogs can be to big marketers," says Stern, who also maintains the blog NewYorkish.com.
Nick Denton, Gawker Media's publisher, said that one of Nike's agencies contacted the site with an ad campaign for the Art of Speed. Denton, who’s been dubbed the cool kid of micropublishing, proposed the ad buy and a publishing contract.
"Marketers are more interested because Weblogs have reached critical mass as a medium," says Denton. "Not for all marketers. Weblogs are still read by only 10 percent of the online population. But for those companies and agencies trying to target influencers and the 18-34 demographic, Weblogs are now significant."
"Put it this way: where are you going to find this demographic?" he says. "They're tuning out of network television, they don’t read print, and it's hard to advertise on videogames."
Denton declined to discuss performance or financial results of the campaign but said he has had received interest from other brand marketers and has turned down several offers, including consumer goods advertisers.
Stern says, "The response has been extremely positive. As with anything on the Web , there are some purists who resist the notion of commercializing blogs -- much the same way some people reacted to banner ads a few years ago -- but it's steps like these that legitimize the medium and help ensure it's here to stay."
New tool or new fad?
One industry expert says that blogs are starting to find their way into the marketing landscape because everything that has the potential for being a public vehicle of communication can inevitably be part of that landscape.
"I am a contrarian by nature, so whenever I encounter unbridled enthusiasm for every new thing, I am skeptical," says Jim Meskauskas, iMedia contributor and partner and chief strategic officer at Underscore Marketing. "The fractious media environment and audiences growing resistance to marketing messaging are forcing marketers to look to any virgin territory they can in which to place their messages and catch our attention. What I like about Nike's method is that they seek to be part of the flow experience rather than be an interruptive force. But there is nothing unique about blogs that makes them better for this than other environments."
Meskaukas says that marketers will try anything to get in front of consumers but anticipates the marketer's interest in the blog craze will eventually die down.
"Interest is growing for good reason, but in the long run, I don't think it will bear any fruit. The reason is that blogs, in essence, are individualistic personal expressions that are supposed to be for their authors authentic manifestations of the self," he says. "To let companies co-opt that is to undermine the very power blogs have that are attracting marketers to them in the first place. Savvy marketers know this, so they start their own blogs, as is the case for Art of Speed on Gawker. But there is nothing very authentic (or special) about a marketer putting up a Web site in support of a product, which is essentially all this is."
Marketers, artists share opportunities
The artistic approach to this project reiterates the vast online opportunities not only for marketers but for artists. One filmmaker tapped for the project says that while he's not a total Internet buff, he sees it as an increasingly important tool.
"The main thing about Internet content is that people are in more control than TV," says Greg Brunkalla, 24, who created the film "One Muscle/Making Muscle." Brunkalla says he was given guidelines and two Nike products that had to be used in his film.
Brunkalla's film is about two guys watching an exercise video in their apartment who become inspired to move. In addition to directing, Brunkalla plays the role of exercise muse. Speed is explored in the film as these men, one in Nike garb, move faster and slower, forward and backward, throughout the workout.
"I feel like Internet content has to be better for people to really sit through it. People get on the Internet and they are in a surfing mode," Brunkalla says. "You can stop it, play it back and watch it for three seconds, pause it. I feel like Internet content has to be even better for people to really sit through it."
The field for opportunities in blogging is wide. Great blogs, like magazines, will be recognized for their design, writing and focus, Denton says. And it is important for bloggers to distinguish themselves.
"Sure, millions of blogs exist these days but the majority are personal journals where people can talk about what they had for dinner or post pictures of their cat," Stern says. "A much smaller number of blogs try to reach a wide audience. For both, though, blogging has been a wonderful development. For the person detailing his or her life, a blog provides a wonderful outlet and a chance to connect with others.
"For the bigger blogs that are reaching thousands of millions of people, the medium is changing the face of journalism and the publishing in this country. I think the very best blogs will rise to the top," Stern says.