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Marty McFly’s Nike sneakers have finally come Back From the Future

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September 8  |  Viral Marketing  |   Simon

As a senior member of Gen Y, the 80s holds many of my fondest pop culture memories. The Back to the Future movies were huge hits when they were released and are still loved by millions today. I still remember seeing the original Back to the Future when it was first released to VHS. When the sequel came out, where Marty McFly travels to the future, my whole generation was blown away. No one can forget the flying DeLorean, the hoverboard, the 3D Jaws movie billboard to the self-tying Nike hi-tops that Marty McFly wears. With all this and so many other imaginative details, Director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg were able to send us all to the distant future: the year 2015. Now in 2011, Nike is finally releasing the same Nike’s Marty McFly wore to ride his hoverboard, after over 20 years of rumours and hype.

The legions of Back to The Future fans have always discussed and fantasized about when the hoverboard and the self-tying sneakers would become a reality. On September 6th, 2011 the Nike “Air Mags” finally came back from the future in a teaser Youtube video by user “DocEmmettBrown88”, for those who don’t know all their BTTF trivia, that’s the name of the scientist who invented the time traveling DeLorean.

The next day at around 3pm, NiceKicks.com, one of the leading authorities in the world of sneakers, received a special package from the future. Just like the scenes in the movies where Marty would receive messages from Doc Brown for another point in time, an iPod Shuffle had a special message from the Doc himself saying: “Welcome to Los Angeles. If my calculations are correct, over the next 24 hours you are about to see some SERIOUS SH*T!”. It included an invitation to: “IT’S ABOUT TIME…an unveiling that could change the course of time”, a special event in Hollywood tonight. I’m sure the NiceKicks staff are BTTF fans and I couldn’t imagine their excitement, I would have screamed and fainted for sure.

promo package for Nike's "Back to The Future" Air Mag sneakers

Doc Brown's metal wrap glasses from "Back to The Future II"The package contained Throwback Pepsi (the mid-80s formula), some 80s candy, such as Nerds and bubble gum tape. It also had the Back to The Future Trilogy and a pair of Doc Brown’s metal shield glasses he wore in the film.

While there have been a few Nike releases with a “Marty McFly” theme, none have been official or done the pair from the movie justice. Last August, NiceKicks reported that Nike had filed a patented for a pair of battery-operated self-tying shoe with LED lights. Many dismissed it as a hoax since rumours of this sneaker being made have always come up over the years.

80s candy, Throwback Pepsi and "Back to The Future" movies

Now we have confirmation that the dream is real, tonight at 8pm, the real-deal Marty McFly Air Mag sneakers will be unveiled. They will be the first rechargeable footwear from Nike, featuring a glowing LED panel and it actually auto-ties itself with a button… JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIE!!!!

Nike's Air Mag sneaker from "Back to The Future"

1500 have been made, with 150 to go up for auction on eBay for 10 days, starting tonight. All proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease. In case you are not aware, Michael J. Fox who starred in BTTF, has Parkinsons which led to him starting this foundation. He will appear on David Letterman tonight, hopefully in his signature outfit from the movies. Leading up to this release, Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki said they would match all donations to this foundation up until 2012, at a max of $50 million. With over 20 years of hype for this release, I’m sure it will be an all out 10-day bidding war for these sneakers, so it’s great to see Brin and Wojcicki stepped up to match all donations.

Marty McFly holding his Nike Air Mags in "Back to The Future II"

Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, said he wanted to translate all the built-up excitement for this sneaker and turn it into a positive action to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s disease. A great PR move by Nike to help a great cause. The viral-ness of this sneaker has blown up across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. This has covered all marketing costs, outside of the teaser video, release event and promo packages. And Nike and BTTF fans get a chance to fulfill a childhood dream while giving to charity. This ends up being a win-win-win situation, with Nike, charity and fans all benefiting. It also stands as another stellar example of viral marketing and leverage of inbound marketing techniques, brought to us by the geniuses at Nike.

topsy.com stats for "Back to The Future"

Hoverboard from "Back to The Future II"

Still waiting for the Hoverboard to come out...

Let’s take a look at some of the real-time stats from Topsy.com after 24 hours of NiceKicks’ post on receiving the promo package. The Back to The Future hashtag, #BTTF has been used just over 1000 times. “Back to The Future” has been mentioned 5,600 times, “Marty McFly” has been mentioned 2,800 times and “Nike Air Mag” mentioned 1,500 times. The post itself has had over 19,000 FB ‘likes’, 228 +1’s and 3683 retweets. The teaser Youtube video has received almost 185,00 views in two days. All this without the shoes even being released yet. Just imagine the ROI of promoting a pair of sneakers or a charity through traditional channels like banner, print or TV ads, compared to inbound marketing tactics of social networks and blogging. You can imagine the $$ saved.

We’ll see how long this topic trends with 10 days of auctioning. And I’ll also update if I’m incredibly lucky and win a bid… They would just make the perfect pair of (online)work shoes.

UPDATE: The winning big on the first pair was $37,500 by British rapper Tinie Tempah, who also received a plutonium case to carry them in and was apparently promised a puppy by the auction’s host. And unfortunately, the sneakers do not auto-fasten, guess we’ll actually have to wait until 2015 like in the movie… But in other BTTF news, Coke-a-Cola has angel invested in The Hoverboard Program, which aims to bring us the hoverboard by 4:29pm on the 21st of October 2015, which is the exact date/time when Marty McFly arrived in the future. Its hard to say how serious this program is, they are hiring though. Just like with the legacy of the Nike Air Mags, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Follow me on Twitter:@S_Gerard

Photo Credits: NiceKicks.com

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Twitter’s Earthquake Commercial – Snoozfest!

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September 2  |  Brand Building  |   Ryan Clark

I was expecting a lot more 2.0 humor and pizazz to come from Twitter’s commercial but it fell kind of flat for me. You’ve almost nabbed everyone in the tech/nerd/hipster sphere, and if you’re wanting to reach the broader audience, you’re going to have to do better than this! The communication power of Twitter is immense and down right useful, so I expect to see something more emotionally moving next time around.

 

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Ecommerce Twitter Marketing Strategies In Action

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August 17  |  Ecommerce SEO  |   Ryan Clark

From time to time I see Ecommerce sites using Twitter in really effective, fun and marketable ways. I’ve been saving a few of these one day for a post and finally got something to go on here for everyone! We’ll take a look at some big players, and of course the smaller niche shops out there doing it large.Most of all the brands mentioned are favorites of mine, so oh happy day for them because they’re getting a link! I’d like to do this type of post more often as well, so send us in some tips of your favorite brands doing awesome things via Twitter!

Twitter is a great way to interact with real people in near real time, and this is great for business. I like the fact the small to big brands can take part and actually make some serious coin. I especially like how you can build a real trust level with customers just from interacting. You bigger brands really can make someone’s day just by sending them a Tweet, so take advantage of that!

@Sheepskins – http://www.sheepskinfurs.com

This is a great example of interacting with someone who owns some sheepskin and obviously is having some problems. I’m not sure if this lead to them getting a sale for a new rug, but they handled the interaction spot on in my books! Offering the discount a new sheepskin rug also may keep their brand in her memory every time she gets a whiff of that smelly old rug.

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@DJPremium – http://www.djpremium.com

This is a great use of Twitter for helping a customer out and I imagine the more active you are doing this, the greater your conversion rate will be! If the Twitter manager knew the answer directly, then obviously this would have been the better choice. Regardless, it’s nice to have a brand speak back to you on issues at hand. I buy a lot of my denim from these folks so it’s nice to be able to use them as an example of Twitter customer service!

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@OswegoHotel – http://oswegovictoria.com

This happens to be one of of favorite hotels in the world, and they happen to be right in my neck of the woods. The social media team for this boutique hotel is on the ball to say the least. They’re insanely good at social interaction and I’d recommend just studying how they run things for a great example of how to do social media.

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@Hublot – http://www.hublot.com

Hublot is one of my favorite watch brands, and they’re a company that doesn’t need to use social media to thrive at all. However, they do one helluva job making their fans know what’s what. @JayZ has recently started rocking their brand and it makes for a great celebrity endorsement…perhaps one of the biggest. They’re doing a lot of good marketing tactics on Twitter to raise awareness and this is just one example.

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@3DCart – http://www.3dcart.com

This brilliant ecommerce platform is no stranger to marketing hard via social media and I’ve always liked how they’ve handled themselves. With all the ecommerce software competition out there, you’re going to have to hustle to keep the users flocking to your service. Here’s a good example of them winning over a new client.

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Whitehouse Twitter Drops The LOLZ

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July 29  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

While the Whitehouse will rarely answer a tough question, the jokes were certainly a flying this week via their Twitter account. Their Twitter team went a little viral this week when they they dropped the rickroll on Twitter user Wiggsd, and I imagine he loved it! A lot of people were annoyed that this happened, while I think it’s fun an a prime example of good social media participation. I imagine all the news brought them in a hefty amount of followers this week in hopes of catching more lolz.

whitehouse rick rolled

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Gwazu.com Makes Twitter Contests A Breeze

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March 11  |  Twitter Marketing  |   Ryan Clark

Our team has been handling a lot of contests lately in the social media realm, so when a new tool comes out we’re always thankful. Getting followers to your social media channels are more important than ever, and we have an inkling that it’s going to be even more crucial by the end of 2011. Marketing a contest by Twitter is so easy that not doing one is just plain crazy. Gwazu.com has recently come onto the radar of our team not only for its contest marketing ability, but to enter random give-aways when we’re bored. I thought we’d take a quick look at what makes this web app tick, and hopefully persuade some brands to start using their platform.

The first thing I’ll mention is the complete ease of entering a contest from the consumers point of view. As long as you’re logged into your Twitter account, you just need to click the enter contest button and you’re done. It doesn’t get any easier than that! This should really entice companies and brands to jump on board and utilize their platform. Those ReTweets should be nice and handy in getting a lot of exposure, and play things right so that people are funneled to your Facebook Page.

Getting your contest listed here for now just requires a simple email and a reading of their rules. Gwazu’s aim is to alert the world about the biggest and best social media contests, so I don’t recommend coming to them with a measly $10 gift card to Mcdonalds…although I’d most likely sign up for that! You can also pay to advertise in their featured contest spot which is top dead center, schmack dab in the middle! So what are you waiting for? Get on that social media contest your brand has been dying to do before it’s too late!

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Chrysler Drops F-Bomb Via Twitter

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March 9  |  Brand Building  |   Ryan Clark

While some people would be offended to hear the F-word, most of us hear it on a daily basis so it’s no big deal really. When it comes to branding and watching what you say on behalf of your company, then that’s a different story. While it looked like the social media team for Chrysler may have accidentally dropped the F-bomb via their Twitter profile, it now is a case of being hacked…or at least that’s what they say. Regardless I’m all for it! While a few people will scoff at what has happened, the rest of the web is quick to talk about it on Twitter, Facebook and of course blogs. This means the links are pouring in and it’s a nice little bit of exposure for Chrysler.

So far I haven’t heard much of a negative response, but I’m sure Chrysler is doing all it can to make sure their image isn’t tarnished. If anything is learned here, and you have a slip up via social media like this then you can instantly claim you were hacked and begin an easy clean up process. Either way, the auto company will enjoy a couple days of buzz before the entire world forgets all about it…kinda like when they a launch a new car(zing!).

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Social Media Influences Your Google Ranking

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January 24  |  News  |   Ryan Clark

Some big news from the top stating, once and for all, that yes, social media will be affecting your rankings.

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Twitter Says No To Third Party Advertisers

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May 25  |  Social Networks  |   Ryan Clark

Well you all remember pay for blog posts I’m sure….here’s the start of another search marketing industry that is about to go underground Twitter recently said that there will be no more inserting third party ads via the Twitter API. Companies like Sponsored tweets may take a little hit, but for now I think they’re still going to bank for a while. This is nothing new of course. Where there is a crowd, there is a marketer. I think in the right context, with the right set of followers this shouldn’t be a problem as long as the shoe fits. Obviously the debate is heating up on Mashable, so check it out to voice your opinion, especially if you’re a developer.

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