The Brief:
In early 2009 PUMA began moving heavily into social media. Most PUMA brand pages were turned into blogs (PUMA Running, PUMA Ocean Racing, etc) and PUMA began developing presences in Facebook, Twitter and others while utilizing a range of social tools and platforms. How to make sense of this new space, properly manage communities and technologies, vet research and new partners, calculate ROI, and use the knowledge to improve programs, create value, measure performance and make sales?

coBRANDiT's Role:
Since February 2009 we have partnered with PUMA on a retainer basis to assist with program and platform development, research initiatives, and other projects related to the socialization of their business. Working out of their international office in Boston, we are continuing in this capacity through 2010. Specific projects to date include:

PUMA Football: Develop iPhone and BlackBerry mobile apps, technology and feeds. Assist with football content strategy, mobile and otherwise, surrounding African Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup. Get the iPhone app here.

PUMA Ocean Racing: Video distribution research & recommendations. Extensive platform set up and maintenance, including facebook, twitter, blog functions.

PUMA Running: Set up facebook page, manage Street Meet PR and limited advertising through facebook. Video production & distribution surrounding Street Meet. Develop and execute award winning Usain Bolt video distribution program (see case study here).

Ongoing research: The social media/WOM ROI question: Assigning value to fans/friends, figuring out market mix/word-of-mouth valuation methodologies, making research recommendations. Assist in vetting monitoring solutions, develop questions/analysis surrounding research results.

Monthly pull of comparative statistics for facebook, twitter, and youtube channels, competitive research. Ongoing research into ramifications of facebook platform updates and the effect on fan growth. Ongoing research and recommendations re: facebook app developers and use of dashboard management systems. Assist in vetting platform development proposals and composing strategy & budgeting docs.

PUMA Golf: Video production, tee-off party. PUMA City: Develop and populate elements of facebook page. Tretorn: Video distribution, optimization, & reporting. Sergio Rossi: Video distribution & optimization. Alexander McQueen RAW POWER: Analysis and recommendations related to video editing contest.

Research/expose "black hat" video distribution techniques (Findings were presented in our WOMMA Webinar, click here for deck).

Research/recommendations: 1) Brand presence/best practices in Orkut for S. American audience. 2) Marketing uses of mobile "Check-In" sites: Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. 3) Analysis and recommendations related to brand uses of photo sharing and archiving sites such as Flickr, Photobucket, etc.

Create blogger outreach master list by brand: Research existing resources/contacts and recommend new ones when appropriate.

We will continue to post examples of our PUMA work here in the months to come. Thank you PUMA for the opportunity to be a part of your team!

A little action we shot last month. For more see PUMArunning.com or PUMA Running on facebook. coBRANDiT is assisting PUMA Running with social media content development and outreach.

Jesse and I will be shooting video at PUMA Running's Street Meet Boston this weekend. Street Meet is what you get if you drop a come-one-come-all track meet into a Jamaican street carnival, and add in international stars like Usain Bolt. Street Meet Boston is stop one on a 6 city international tour.

coBRANDiT is working closely with PUMA Running on video production, social media optimization, and community outreach surrounding Street Meet and other running initiatives.

PUMA CITY comes to Boston for three weeks or so later this month. It's a retail store, event space, and bar rolled into one. Constructed of shipping containers, it's currently traveling around the world with PUMA Ocean Racing as the team competes in the Volvo Ocean Race. It's also going to be the backdrop for STREET MEET, PUMA Running's Jamaican street party/track meet on April 26.

coBRANDiT is assisting PUMA with content production, distribution, optimization, and general social media strategy. Work in progress, details TK, but here's the short list of projects we're involved with as of now:
PUMA Ocean Racing, PUMA Running, PUMA Golf, PUMA City, PUMA.
Most of these sites are blogs. Also active on facebook, twitter, flickr, and youtube.

"Whether they admit it or not every team has a guy who loves to take his clothes off. PUMA's guy just happens to be bowman Casey Smith. When rounding Cape Horn, Casey promised to round in the nude. As you will see, he kept his word..."

coBRANDiT is working with PUMA Ocean Racing for the next 7 months, helping to engage audiences through social media.

The Brief:
In early 2008 PUMA Running began sponsoring up and coming Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. On May 31 Bolt surprised the running world by setting a new world record in the 100m, and it was decided to create a video “blogumentary” following Bolt as he prepared for and competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A flash based site and game was built to contain the program, but how to attract online running communities and the wider world of Olympic enthusiasts? What word-of-mouth and social media strategies could be used to involve viewers, improve SEO, and drive traffic to chasingbolt.com?

coBRANDiT’s Role:
In the space of 4 weeks we developed a multi-faceted social media outreach strategy that consisted of distribution to 15+ video sharing and social networking sites, as well as a branded Facebook application (no longer supported as of 7/2010) with a related cross-platform video widget. We optimized the videos within networks, responded to commentary, reached out to top running and olympic bloggers to gain choice placement, managed ad buys supporting the program, and ran a user-generated photo contest through the Chasing Bolt Facebook app. During the month of August, 12 videos were sent from Beijing to us for distribution and optimization, resulting in over 2 million views, a 64% increase in PUMA-related online chatter, and on August 20th the greatest number of daily uniques for any PUMA web property ever.

UPDATE: On November 14th 2008 this program received an Award of Excellence from the Society for New Communications Research.

“coBRANDiT put together a great social media campaign, the results of which exceeded our expectations. They know the space very well and are very easy to work with. I highly recommend coBRANDiT.”
-–Matt Taylor, Global Manager, PUMA Running

“coBRANDiT has been an incredible help to PUMA in areas from consumer research to digital campaign launches, always bringing fresh ideas and seeing them through to execution. Their passion and energy lifts up our entire team.”
--Ryan Eckel, Group Head, Marketing Strategy and Operations, PUMA AG

**Note: coBRANDiT has also conducted man-on-the street video research for PUMA in top markets such as Paris, London and NY; produced internal sales vids for PUMA Running; and consulted on social media and word-of-mouth programs off and on since 2004.

As part of PUMA's chasingBOLT video distribution program we have developed the above video widget and a related Facebook app. on Involver's platform. (Click on the Join on Fb logo in the lower right corner of the widget.) Thanks to Rahim and the Involver team for busting ass and getting it out in short order! Involver is an interesting platform for two reasons: 1) They have a number of plug-ins that allow easy function withing the widget: email capture, quizzes, outbound links can all be set up to run within the player, and 2) this player integrates with Facebook like no other i've come across. Involver creates a custom app. with many community sharing and outreach functions that I'm hoping we'll be able to utilize...planning time is tight (we just got the whole assignment 10 days ago) but we do have a few things in store...Watch for special Usain Bolt Olympic gear and info coming through this thing!

PUMA Running has hired coBRANDiT to help distribute video and publicize content from chasingBOLT.com. chasingBOLT is a "blogumentary series" which follows PUMA sponsored 100m world record holder Usain Bolt as he travels to Beijing to compete in the 2008 Olympics. Working with our distribution partners Pandemic Labs and Involver we'll be updating various social media video channels, widgets and apps. with new content regularly for the next month, so stay tuned!

I'm gonna see how long it takes 1) to get on google's page one with tonybertone.com and 2) how long it takes to get a meeting with Tony, PUMA's global brand director. Will keep you posted. Tony! Call me. 617 823 9286. Text from vid posts:
Dear Tony: We request a meeting to discuss PUMA and social media outreach, aka the new PR. We've got your attention, and we can do the same for PUMA's fans. Make your existing programs more effective without changing how you operate. Talk to you soon-- Owen. Here are vids on YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, DailyMotion and Veoh.

Update: It took exactly one hour to get my Viddler video onto google's #2 front page slot for a "Tony Bertone" search. The video was viewed once. By me. Amazing. See screenshot below.



UPDATE 7/14/08: Here's a screenshot this morning of a "tony bertone" search. You'll notice that tonybertone.com is now the #1 slot, in fact I pretty much own the page. Nice. Now all I need is the meeting.

We're learning to build widgets on sprout's platform, here's an example we mocked up for a theoretical PUMA motorsport campaign. (Note: Widget no longer supported as of 7/2010) Widgets to me represent the ultimate viral thing for a marketer...a perfect little tranferable package...as long as you recognize that they're worthless as a stand-alone gadget. They should be treated as the interface for a much deeper experience, and an interface that provides some usefulness & utility. Pretend you're an F1 race fan, then play around with the widget above and you'll see some of what I'm talking about. Note: PUMA produces Ferrari's team gear.

Jesse runs the nice camera, camera 2 is the cheapo Canon zx60 we carry around for backup and when we're goofing off and want something that fits in a pocket. This piece is a collection of clips from two missions we went on in 2003: exploring an abandoned factory in Somerville MA and checking out the environs in Eastham MA near Jesse's dad's house.

We did not produce this movie. We don't know who did. But we like it, and submit it here for your approval.
(Full disclosure: PUMA is our client.)

We recently produced this video for PUMA's internal sales team. PUMA specified the gear, music and titles, we rounded up locations and models.

Here's some more detailed discussion of the shoes. But what's the DJ got on his feet?

"Do not release them."

PUMA Californias explore an abandoned house.

We conducted market research in London, sussing out a new line of PUMAs. Not everybody liked them.