Just a terrific, creative and well-timed use of the Facebook Timeline by Nike Basketball. Coinciding with the NBA Playoffs – and a handful of new sneakers for top stars like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant – Nike Basketball is releasing a series of basketball rules:

“Every EPIC moment has a story. And every story has a lesson.
Lesson No. 1: The deeper the bench. The stronger the squad.”

Each rule is placed atop a basketball poster that ties into the playoffs and relevant players. Two or three rules are posted a day (so far, 38 rules and posters have been loaded). Nike also mixes in other timely promos like a congratulations to Lebron James for his MVP award and this graphic for the evening’s Lakers / Thunder game:

It’s clever, fun, on brand and highly visual – which means it is highly engaging on Facebook. It is also something that only Nike can do (the talent, the imagery and the production) and something that really can only be done on Facebook and with Facebook Timeline (no offense to Twitter, but this would be neither as effective nor engaging).

Fun and interesting screenshot below from my Facebook newsfeed just a few minutes ago. These two posts appeared beside one another and were not clustered under a topic (ie ‘Masters’ or ‘Golf’) by Facebook.

Titleist posted 19 minutes ago that champion Bubba Watson used their ProvV1x ball. That came 10 minutes ahead of Nike Golf, whose icon is Tiger Woods (had a very poor outing). They posted a generic comment about the tournament.

Also worth noting – Titelist’s Facebook Timeline is great!

Both brands are posting about the same topic – trying to take advantage of the current interest – and both brands are doing so at the exact same time. Titelist is doing it far more effectively from an engagement number (250k fans vs. 1.1m) and are leveraging the person (Bubba) to do so.

If you’ve been watching any television recently, you’ve surely seen the barrage of ad spots for Google Chrome, Google Plus, and Internet Explorer 9. I understand Google’s effort but am generally confused by advertising specifically for IE9… which can’t be as effective / meaningful as focusing on Windows Mobile.

Anyhow… the point is that Google took to ESPN.com yesterday to cleverly promote Google Plus alongside the NCAA Tournament. It’s well done because it’s relevant, good looking and ties into the product very well (circles!). Most interesting is how it ties directly into the product – each NCAA team is “followable” on Google+ and there are scheduled Hangouts with analysts, teams, etc.

Really well done and an interesting twist as they try to differentiate from Facebook and Twitter… and the two areas where they can stand out:

Hangouts (the star of the product) and
Media / Lists (something Twitter hasn’t nailed yet)

This cracks me up: ESPN (who has been criticized for not generously citing sources in the past) ran a front page article on UCLA’s troubled basketball team. In citing the source as Sports Illustrated, ESPN strangely noted:

“The article, first published on the SI.com iPad application late Tuesday night…”

I find it fascinating:

1. this was called out by ESPN … why?

2. Sports Illustrated published the article to the iPad before the website… and both before the magazine. It clearly was an attempt to push the iPad app / subscription… which seems to be working (#1 in Sports over last week) but doesn’t seem nearly as strategic as launching the article on SI.com.

File this under ironic advertising: ESPN is running a campaign for Nationwide insurance, whose advertisement coincides with today’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona and has featured a Danica Patrick crash (“Spnning out of control: Danica crashed again”). Hard to tell if Nationwide should consider this fortunate or unfortunate placement…!

I write a lot about tailoring your web experience for the environments where it is (and can) be used. That is particularly important for mobile which has its own UI needs, requirements, opportunities and challenges.

Here is the latest example.

ESPN has done a good job creating product & content for specific environments and devices. Example here. While that is an effective treatment – this is not. When ‘watching’ an ESPN Gamecast on the iPad (which is an excellent product) – it requires you to watch it in landscape mode. There is literally no content and no experience otherwise. Even if ESPN believes that landscape is the best way to view Gamecast, you would think that they would either create a light version or showcase some other content? Very strange.

You’re probably familiar with Vibram 5 Finger Shoes that have become somewhat popular. They became popular in part because they were so different, unique and noticeable. When someone wears a pair – you visually take note…. and if you’ve not seen them before, you ask what they are.

And now they are quite recognizable and popular.

Flipping through a magazine, I came across the below ad for Adidas’ new, equivalent shoe. It’s a great reminder that:

- differentiation doesn’t last forever… particularly when you succeed.

- big brands with big budgets exist… and they take notice.

- consequently, differentiation exists as long as you can run faster, further.

- think forward and about your brand more than about protection & competition

- … and when a start-up, make sure you’ve thought enough about whether you have a sustained chance to take a large enough lead (time, product, brand) before others arrive.

By now you have surely heard of P90x – the ultra-popular home workout program that become famous for the never-ending infomercials. After the success of P90x, parent company Beachbody recently released P90x 2… and in conjunction with the launch, they released an iPhone application. It’s interesting for a few reasons:

1. Fitness 2.0. It’s at the intersection of an evolving, important and fast-moving space: fitness 2.0 (for lack of a better description). What’s that mean? Applying the new web to fitness: social, gamification, mobile, etc. Note: if you’re working on something in this space, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me

2. Gamification & Social Hooks: notice that this app does more than just award badges. It is part of Apple’s Game Center.

3. Paid & Premium. You would think that they would package this application for free as a way to drive awareness / purchases of the workout system. Nope. I guess they don’t need awareness. SO they are selling it for $4.99 and include in-app purchases that are relatively expensive (videos & clips).

4. High Ratings. Achieving high ratings in iTunes is an impossible task. 4.5 stars out of 83 reviews… for a paid app? That’s impressive.

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Sports fans today got a Black Friday present: the 149 day NBA lockout is on the verge on ending.

And the result is a good thing for fans: the season will be 66 games (a better result than the normal 82!), result in greater league parity (ala the NFL), lead to a healthier league (good for everyone), and create a whirlwind December free agency period (the surprisingly great outcome of the NFL lockout).

The lockout was painful, mismanaged on both sides and generally could have been avoided… or at least handled far differently and far earlier. But the 2011-2012 season is saved and hopefully goodness comes from the ugly.

One of the most interesting and overlooked aspects was the role Twitter played in a world where:

- players couldn’t communicate with the league

- players themselves were not entirely knowledgeable of the latest events / outcomes

- both sides were feeling significant pressure from the public (pressure is a soft word here for disgust for most and hate for some)

- both sides were starved for communication outlets

So everyone took the Twitter: the league, the owners and the players. Some were trying to position themselves, some trying to save face and others trying to voice their opinion in a public manner (since it wasn’t being heard privately). Fascinating.

So why Twitter was so important here? First, the NBA and its players could feel the public’s disgust… far more publicly. In prior strikes / lockouts, the fans didn’t have as much power as they do today. And in prior situations, nobody had the outlets they do today: players and owners were able to immediately express frustration, anger, etc… and to huge audiences. The result was a very public negotiation that made many of those involved come across as confused, desperate, disjointed and/or displeased.

Nevertheless, it provided a platform for all constituents to amplify their voice… and to listen. And while that was debatably an effective / ineffective exercise – it was terrifically powerful for the fans.

Here are some examples:

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison (@mickyarison) took to Twitter to express his thankfulness to his fans. This was retweeted by the NBA (@nba). Takeaway: comes across as desperate.

NBA player Luis Scola (@lscola4) took to Twitter at a time when there was debate within the players union as to whether they should pass the league’s proposal. There players were beginning to fracture and many had expressed confusion over the proposal’s specifics. In one of these tweets, Luis asks the NBA a question directly and publicly. Takeaway: shows player disjointedness and general player confusion with process / outcome… which shows weakness.

Here’s an example of Chris Sheridan (former ESPN NBA writer) and Luis. Chris posted a critical piece about the lockout and Luis retweeted it. Takeaway: fascinating as it shows the players are reading the commentary and clearly trying to share certain opinions.

This is my favorite one. The NBA took to Twitter to do a fan Q&A session about the lockout. It was in an effort to engage fans, show appreciation and help communicate… but it was a terrible idea (and I’m shocked anyone in PR allowed this to happen). It lead to fans spewing negativity, players tweeting questions, and the league being forced to answer uncomofortable questions. Takeaway: trying to do something positive but no an intelligent move.

ESPN is getting closer! I have written a lot about ESPN’s usage – and potential usage – of Twitter. I have criticized and applauded. Here is an example of ESPN continuing to improve.

It’s a minor example, but ESPN has now allowed in-line actions on their Twitter modules (it used to be just one-way reading, mobile example here). You can now retweet, reply and favorite content inline. Novel idea right?!

It is getting closer: ideally this would be more expansive than a widgety module. It would be more deeply integrated, power group chats, include lists, etc… but, it is getting closer!