Oakley's Green Frame Olympic Branding Strategy

The 2014 Winter Olympics were full of amazing stories of victory and defeat. From the underdogs to the favored champions, the Sochi Olympics did not disappoint. 

Seize the Moment - Oakley's Gold Medal

With million of eyeballs watching, companies try to use creative marketing techniques to seize the moment. Oakley did it perfectly—it started with green. 

Branding in the Olympics - The Green Frame

The Olympics has many rules against marketing and branding. Logos have to be a certain size. Olympians can't have stickers and patches all over their apparel. Signs along side the venues only promote the host city's Olympic logo and graphics. 

Companies spend millions of dollars to be the sponsored apparel for athletes in each discipline. Oakley used a green frame product placement strategy to unite its athletes during the Olympics. In every discipline you saw the green Oakley frames. 

Why the Green Oakley Frames in the Olympics?

Simple—it was genius. Like any great marketing strategy Oakley's product placement strategy started with a why. The why helped carry their story and the why helped explain their cause. Oakley said, "Oakley introduced its first goggles in 1980. The green color honors a heritage of innovation as one of our first goggle colors. During Sochi, green will unite athletes from competing nations."

Their strategy was brilliant. Oakley put a stake in the ground—the best athletes around the world wear Oakley and unified they will accomplish big things. 

Check out some of the great pictures of the green frames. 

Three Reasons Oakley Wins Olympic Branding

1. The Why - Using green goggles and frames Oakley drove product awareness & branding around a cause—unify top athletes around the world. 

2. Bright Green - Brands are built on color. Oakley used a bright green color to stand out. The color's purpose was to celebrate 34 years of Oakley innovation supporting top athletes around the world.

3. Eyeballs - Millions of people watched as Oakley green goggles and frames stood out and were noticed. Announcers even commented about the cause and reason for green frames.

Each Olympics I watch for innovative marketers to take a different approach to marketing and branding. This year, Oakley was the clear winner. 

Nice work Oakley marketing.

A brand is summed up by every touch point and an Olympic touchpoint is gold.

If you liked this article you might like this article

 How Sol Republic Stole the Show in the London Games

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3 Things Marketers Can Learn From Justin Timberlake's Launch

What can marketers learn from Justin Timberlake's new album launch? It has been awhile since Justin Timberlake produced a music album. Over the past years, Justin's number one question was, "You going to sing again or did you just quit?"

On January 10, 2013, with one tweet Justin Timberlake answered that question. 

Justin Timberlake's Tweet

"To whom it may concern...I think I'M READY! #JT2013." 

Within an hour, Justin Timberlike was trending on Twitter. The tweet contained a link to a YouTube video that showed Justin walking through multiple doors at a recording studio telling us why he has waited so long to do another album. In essence Justin said, "I don't want to put anything out that I feel like is something I don't love. You just don't get that every day. You have to wait for it." Then he walks through the last door and up to the mic and says, "I'M READY". Then the video routed you to a sign up page with a countdown (days, hours, minutes, seconds). Once you signed up you were directed to a letter from Justin telling you more about his new music venture.

I thought the execution was brilliant. I said to myself, "Nice work Justin. That was awesome."

Three Things Marketers Can Learn from JT's launch

There were three reasons I really like Justin's launch and think they apply perfectly to marketers.

1. The Why

The why is one of the most important parts of good brand positioning and a strong marketing campaign. As you watched Justin's video you understood why he had waited so long to launch his next album. I wish I could find the video, but it is no longer on the site. The why is an important part of telling a marketers story.

2. Exclusivity 

Exclusivity or what I define as the seat to the inner circle has always been a big part of creating music fans. Justin took this music & marketing principle and used it to his advantage. To kick off his campaign, he tweeted to his 15 million twitter followers. He did it with one tweet. Within the hour, Justin was trending on Twitter. Social media has really changed the game for the music industry.

3. Creativity

Without creativity marketing is stale or old (been there done that). I wrote another blog post how to find your creative genius here. Justin's approach was creative and definitely out of the box. He used new technologies like twitter to step out of the box and launch his campaign in a unique but exclusive way. 

Nice work Justin.

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The Four I's of Creativity

Is their a simple process to be creative? 

There Is

In 1972, Alka-Seltzer launched one of the greatest ad campaigns in history. It was called, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing". The ad campaign really spoke to the problem Alka-Seltzer solved. It was a big idea that had legs. It helped Alka-Seltzer triple sales and put them on the map.

One of the main people involved in the idea was Howie Cohen. Howie says, "People need to be communicated with an emotional way and storytelling is the best way to do that.

Howie teaches 4 stages of creativity, the Four I's.

The Four I's of Creativity

I - Intuition - You kind of have an idea, but you don't have much information. 

I - Information - You collect all the information. You need to understand the real problem. You find what it's all about. You understand every angle. 

I - Incubation - Now you let it incubate. Forget about it. This is when the creative soup happens. This is when the big ideas come.

I - Inspiration - Then your creative ideas will come. They will come when you least expect them. Write down every idea. 

I agree with Howie. Many of my best marketing ideas do not occur at the desk or in a creative brainstorm. They occur after I have incubated them. These are the shower moments, the moments when you first wake, the GYM moments, or running moments. 

The 4 I's of creativity really work. Give it a try. You will thank Howie later. 

These are four easy steps to be more creative in everything you do.

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Michael Phelps - Genius Olympic Product Placement

Last night just like many of the world, I watched Michael Phelps walk into his last Olympic race. The 4x100m medley relay. How would Michael Phelps, the Olympic's most decorated athlete, finish up the London 2012 games and his olympic career? Would it be gold in a race the Americans have never lost? Chances looked gold (good).

Something Different

I noticed something different last night as Michael walked into the London Aquatics Centre. Michael was wearing a hood to cover up his headphones that he had displayed proudly during his 6 other olympic races. There was even white tape covering the headphone's company name. So what was up? I knew, the Olympics finally noticed the genius product placement.

Genius Product Placement - The Simple Formula

Lets go back a few days and review the genius product placement. 

1. Millions of Eyeballs

The excitement of this Olympics has been its focus on Michael Phelps. How would he perform? Would he live up to his Beijing results? Would he become the most decorated athlete in Olympic history? These questions caused the world to pause and focus closely on Michael. Millions watched, dvr'd, tweeted, facebooked, and blogged about his every move. So what do you do with an athlete who wears headphones and is watched by millions? Well, you have him wear your company's headphones. Sol Republic did just that. 

Here is the simple marketing formula:

Millions of eyeballs + millions of brand impressions =  instant brand recognition & increased sales 

Which without Michael Phelps and the Olympics, the same formula would take years and millions of dollars.

2. Creativity (Olympic Sponsorship Rules and What Sol Republic did)

The olympic sponsorship rules are tight (read details here) and if broken can result in disqualification. 

What Sol Republic Did

Michael has been using over the ear headphones before races for years. It's part of his routine. So during his first olympic race, Michael appeared with Sol Republic headphones. Millions noticed. Millions were intrigued. Race after race Michael appeared with a new color. This was the genius of the product placement and Sol Republic seized the moment. 

Hand Slap

It looks like the Olympics took a little longer to catch onto the creative move by Sol Republic. During his last Olympic race, Michael wore a hood to cover up the headphones and placed a white piece of athletic tape over the Sol Republic logo. 

Dr Dre Beats was also trying to be creative and got there wrist slapped also. Read here 

Was it a coincidence? Phelps understands the importance of sponsorships and even studied sports marketing in college. Does anyone know what the Phelps/Sol Republic contract looked like? It had to be worth millions or shares in company ownership. It would be interesting to find out.

Shout out to Sol Republic

In a world where big companies have all the money for major paid Olympic sponsorships. It is great to see the creative marketing strategies and moves of the smaller companies who use out of the box thinking to get their brands and companies noticed. 

Also, I really like Sol Republic's product idea of interchangeable head phone pieces. Definitely a big move in a market that is getting crowded. #Brilliant   

3 Rules of Co-Marketing (Apple & Audi)

One of my favorite aspects of business is the development of go-to-market strategies and plans. Successful go-to-market strategies are supported by tons of business analysis and research. It is important to choose target markets and audiences based on financial and business. It is also important to understand the competition which helps you position, message, and launch products and services with big results.

Apple and Audi (Co-Marketing)

I am always interested in go-to-market strategies that include strong partnerships. Here are my 3 rules of partnership based go-to-market strategies. To share these rules, I am going to highlight a great example of Apple's product launch of Final Cut Pro X (June 21, 2011) which includes a strong partnership with Audi.

3 Rules of Strong Go-To-Market Partnerships

1. Similar Values

For a successful partnership to work you must have similar values. Take Apple, which values cutting edge technology and performance, who for their Final Cut Pro X launch developed a partnership with Audi which also values cutting edge technology and performance, mesh the two together, and you get a serious connection to performance and style.

The Final Cut Pro X go-to-market campaign features the Audi R8 which oozes high performance and cutting edge design, which is a perfect match for the new version of Final Cut which performs like a high-performance car for those doing post production video work.

2. Strong Brand Synergy

I really like this launch because of the synergistic partnership, you take the Apple brand and the Audi brand and you combine them to get serious brand equity. Both companies have built brands that represent cutting edge design, style, and performance creating a powerful partnership.

As you watch the Final Cut Pro X demo video click here, you see the synergy between Apple's new UI and game changing post production features and the performance of Audi's R8, which I think is pure genius. Make sure the partnerships you develop bring strong synergy to the product or service you are launching.

3. Win Win

The best partnerships are when both parties benefit (WIN WIN). In the Final Cut Pro X go-to-market strategy, Apple benefits from the strong brand and performance of Audi, while Audi benefits from surrounding its self around Apple brand and its new product which contains high-performance revolutionary post production features.

Great job Apple and great job Audi, this is a great example of a strong partnerships that strengthen brands and drive results.

Are there any other partnership rules you live by?

Empower Your Audience, Nike "Chosen"

One of my favorite parts of marketing is when strategy meets creativity. When strategy and creativity meet it is powerful and awe inspiring. The key ingredient to this success starts with a clearly defined target audience. Once the audience is defined and the message put together, the magic happens.

Nike "CHOSEN" Campaign

A campaign I would like to highlight today on my blog is the Nike "Chosen" Campaign. I like this campaign because of its strong creative execution and how it involves the target audience. Nike is doing what I call the "Empower Your Brand Strategy". Here is the equation:

Brand + Target Audience + Viral Video Contest + Social Media + Best Athletes + Big Prize = Success

I really like the creativity, messaging, and execution of the "Chosen" microsite. The images and videos of the site portray the concept and creative idea of the "Chosen", with the best athletes from bmx, surfing, skating, snowboarding, and skiing all strutting their stuff in night shots that are inspiring.

Social Media Effect

With this campaign, Nike is inviting their target audience to participate in their brand through a video contest. What is great about the Nike video contest and video contests in general, is that they engage the target audience, encourage them to develop videos, and promote your brand through their videos to friends on Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook. The outcome to this social effect is hundreds to thousands of video circulating all hyped around your brand and contest.

Prize Matters

Another important part of this strategy is the prize. The better the prize, the better the effort toward the contest. Nike is given away a nice prize which includes premium travel, exclusive events, and custom products.

To make sure that the contest really gets going, Nike highlights contestant video submissions in a section of the site called "Noticed!" Just imagine telling your friends that your video is on Nike's website.

To check out this marketing campaign in more detail visit Nike "Chosen" site here

I would like to hear about other strong marketing campaigns, what are your favorites?

Positioning - Audi (Front Attack Strategy)

In my last blog post, I discussed the 5 Key Competitive Positioning Strategies. Here is a real-world example of a Front Attack positioning strategy.

Front Attack Strategy: A front attack strategy is a direct approach based on the customer's perception of your overwhelming superiority in solution, price or reputation.



Guidelines and Caveats



 • 3:1 advantage


• Requires size, speed or surprise


• Resource intensive


 • Blatant/obvious


• Most often used and easily defeated strategy

Real-World Example

Market: Luxury Cars
Key Players: BMW, Lexus, Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, etc.
Company Positioning: Audi
Campaign Name: The Spell
Positioning Strategy: Front Attack
Competitors Being Attacked: Ferrari, Lexus, BMW, Mercedes Benz
True Statement to Support Attack: "Audi is growing faster than BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus." - based on change in U.S market share from 2008 - 2009

Watch Audi's execution below of the positioning strategy - Front Attack

I really thought this positioning was strong and effective. Many of us don't buy a luxury car to be predictable, but you got to love how Audi positioned itself against its main competitors with that thought in mind.