Data Used for Campaigns
Advertising campaigns are fundamental for marketing. They allow companies to capture the attention of their core audience. Campaigns can be done in multiple ways and reach their audience through multiple platforms. The key for a successful campaign is knowing which platform will reach their audience the best, this is where data is important. Data can identify which platform the target audience engages with most and use that information to create the most effective campaign.
There are a few brands that are immediately associated with sports when they are mentioned. These are brands such as Nike, Addias, and Under Armour that have been notorious for their collaborations in the sports industry. One of the most common sports marketing strategies is using popular players to promote products. Data is essential for this marketing approach because brands need an understanding of what individual will be well perceived by their target audience.
In 2019, Nike collaborated with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick to promote athletes following their dreams. This was a campaign that was very strategic and took an immense amount of data to predict audience reactions considering a controversy surrounding the player at the time, which we will begin to explore further. Kaepernick began kneeling during the pre-game anthem in 2016 as a way to protest racial injustice (The Guardian, 2019). Despite negative responses from this campaign, including distasteful comments from former president, Donald Trump, the campaign proved to be successful with a resulting 5% increase in Nike stock.
In this particular campaign a variety of data has to be collected considering all perspectives. Data also has to be collected on how advertising can affect culture and individuals. This data is shown through audiences’ positive and negative comments on social media posts and their engagement with the brand, such as the stock increase in Nike.
A study was done via questionnaires by Yun Kuan of Portland University in 2019 to get a better understanding of how audiences perceive controversial campaigns. In order to understand how controversial advertising impacts consumers’ views on the social issue and the brand, participants were asked to react to two advertisements by different brands featuring different controversial issues. This was done to avoid bias on the specific issue or brand. “A major factor of this study includes participant’s political views and past life experiences; therefore, an internet-mediated questionnaire was utilized to obtain participants from throughout the United States, thus ensuring a variety of backgrounds,” (Yun Kuan, 2018, p. 20).
Through this research, the data revealed that controversial advertising is similar to a mirror, as it reflects individuals’ pre-existing values. The International Advertising Association (1977) explains that controversial advertising is attractive to individuals who already support the cause and thus, it mirrors their political and social perspectives. If controversial advertising is a mirror, then corporations may not be effective in using it to alter people’s political and social opinions (Yun Kuan p. 32).
This shows the amount of thought Nike had to put into creating campaigns. Data must be collected to represent multiple different perspectives before producing any new marketing strategies. This is because sports bring in a very diverse audience that have many different views.
