Nike exercises mobile strength with high school football competition app
Nike is modernizing high school sports with a new mobile application that acts as a digital athletic competition for students to win a chance to attend The Opening at Nike's headquarters.
The sports and fitness gear marketer is hoping to continue its status as a popular brand with younger demographics, and the new Hudl Combine app is its latest extension of that goal. The app gives athletes the tools to train better and compete with their peers on a national level, without ever having to leave their hometown.
'The value of fitness apps is constant reinforcement of brand value
every time the app is used," said Ben Bradley, owner of Macon Raine. "When coupled with stimuli and reward signals, these apps can very quickly help high school athletes build healthy habits and monitor their performance as it improves over time."
Strengthening consumer bond
Nike is bringing its eligibility options for The Opening to mobile, creating a wider access for high school athletes to compete for a chance to attend. The Opening is an annual training experience for football created by the brand, allowing students to learn tools to help them continue on to compete at college and pro levels.
Hudl Combine detects athletic ability through the camera in the user?s iPhone. The app tracks agility shuttle, 40-yard dash, vertical jump and power ball toss and determines the athlete?s rank compared to other users.
Athletes open the filming feature within the app and record themselves complete the various sporting abilities. Through the video, the app will determine the user?s distance, power, speed or whichever measurement is used for that particular sporting event.
The top athletes in the app will receive an invite to attend the 2016 Nike+ Football Opening, where they will learn from professionals in the sport who will help them train to make it big.
Mobile agility
Dutch navigation manufacturer TomTom furthered its partnership with Nike as well by integrating the Nike+ mobile applications into its Multi-Sport GPS Sport Watches (see more).
Similarly, Puma incorporated a strong mobile element into its second Forever Faster campaign by updating a running application for fitness enthusiasts as well as a mobile-optimized microsite featuring inspirational videos from famous athletes (see more).
"Brands considering fitness apps should understand that the built in stimuli and rewards system will make or break the app's success," Mr. Bradley said. "The Hudl platform provides massive incentive as athletes are verified, and top scorers earn invitations to exclusive events.
"Competitive apps should consider the power of the Hudl reward system and work creatively to define a business model with the same power," he said.
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer