4 THE REAL VIRTUAL

What power-moments can create unique experiences in the customer journey?

What would be a natural new thing to do with your brand or product to leverage the power of mobile devices, social media, or the metaverse?

Who initiates experiments to explore future revenue models in your organisation?

MULTIPLE ENTRYPOINTS INTO NIKE’S DIGITAL STORYWORLD

Got 'Em! is a much-appreciated screen message in the Nike app. It pops up upon a successful check-out. Nike has become a master in providing unique and unforgettable experiences. The brand is like a portal, and one can unravel a deeper story as you tap into it. Especially by embedding more and more digital services, you can be invited into the Nike world via diverse entry points and micro-narratives. Nike calls this approach a hybrid model bridging the standard shopping experience with 'big story moments'.

Writing A New Playbook

BEST WAY TO UNDERSTAND BY NIKE realm is by looking at it through the lens of game design. There is a certain storyline inviting you to come and play within a specific arena (shop, app, social media, metaverse), you are identified as a player, and there is an underlying rulebook triggering engagement between the story and the players. The Nike realm uses game mechanics like collecting credits, ranking, time-pressure, lotteries, limited access, etc.

These underlying rules and algorithms learn continuously from every interaction, and feed users new stories and challenges, triggering evermore engagement with the product, community, and Nike brand.

FLOW: CREATING ABUNDANT SCARCITIES

Like the brand story, as a whole, empowers people to overcome challenges, Nike's storyworld is full of activities that manage the right challenge level to the corresponding commitment level of a user/player. A superfan might travel to a certain geo-fenced area to uplift chances of a special sneaker drop, while a casual jogger might aim more towards keeping track of kilometres and pace. Every interaction is designed to connect, inspire, and activate the user with an abundance of Nike created scarcities. Game on!

Level Up Engagement

The chances of ultimate success are low, but people do win in Nike's world. You can win as an athlete, as a sneakerhead seeking a special pair, or as a regular fan praying to meet LeBron James. This fact is what drives people to come back for more after every unsuccessful attempt – especially knowing that the algorithm improves their chances after a 'loss'. Keeping the dream alive that it is still possible.

Design Driven By Data

In e-commerce, you can only grow if you understand the underlying drivers of your users and their needs, wants, triggers and journeys. Data is king in ecommerce. So it's no surprise that Nike has invested heavily in data analytics and AI. Reaching niche groups demands a more-personal digital environment based on an integrated data infrastructure and dynamic frontends.

The ED&A team at Nike is especially keen on taking a step towards more predictive data, such as purchase patterns or social trends, so as to anticipate customer needs, create better products, and improve business processes such as pricing, overstock prevention, or even personalisation.

HOW TO SET EACH OTHER UP FOR SUCCESS?

What kind of data would you love to have, to boost your value proposition to a customer?

Translate your vision, mission, slogan or a marketing message into 32 characters (max).

Create rules that turn users into players.

If __________________ then __________________

If __________________ then __________________

If __________________ then __________________

How could you create a new scarcity and invite customers to engage?