“Sports” and “social media” are two industries we follow closely at Activ8Social. Although there are hundreds of social media services and platforms that each offer something to users, we will be focusing on Facebook in this post. The 300 million user social network behemoth known simply as “Facebook” is fast becoming the ideal hub for any brand’s social media campaign.
Over the next few months, we’ll be reviewing three corporate brands in the sports industry that excel in taking advantage of Facebook to directly engage fans/consumers and promote products in unique and creative ways. First up on our list: PUMA.
Upon visiting the 1.25 million fan Facebook Page of PUMA, the multinational sports apparel and lifestyle brand best known for its soccer and vespa shoes, users are currently greeted by an “Employees” tab. A welcome tab, such as this, can be set as the default tab on your Facebook page for all non-fans that visit the page. For instructions on how to change the default landing tab, check out this step-by-step tutorial.
Once on the “Employees” tab, users are then prompted to select one of seven PUMA employees who represent New York, Boston, LA, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, and Chicago to view the employee’s “hotspot” choices across a variety of categories including bookstores, restaurants, and nightclubs. The concept is quite clever and to further increase user engagement, PUMA has integrated Bing Maps to highlight each hotspot.
Digging deeper, PUMA enables fans to comment on employee selections by creatively incorporating Facebook’s “Discussion” feature, which drives conversation, albeit on topics not directly related to the brand. PUMA clearly believes any dialogue is better than no dialogue. This feature is clearly PUMA’s attempt to humanize its brand, taking a page out of Twitter’s playbook.
In the past, PUMA has successfully engaged its fans through a series of interactive contests on Facebook which included giveaways, trivia, and sweepstakes. Working alongside third parties such as Involver and coBRANDIT, PUMA has done a superb of job leveraging its premiere athletic asset, world-record setting sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who’s been one of the hottest water cooler conversations in recent history.
Through its groundbreaking chasingBOLT promotion, which follows the life of the world’s fastest man via a separate website (which now redirects), YouTube channel, and Facebook application, PUMA attracted over 5,000 international influencers to help promote the within the first month which has resulted in over 1.25 million views.
I’m surprised not to find more direct affiliation with Bolt on PUMA’s Facebook page (only a few sporadic photos, wall posts and links to PUMA Running buried in the “Boxes” tab). A prominently featured “Favorite Pages” tab in the left column and link to the chasingBOLT application would be a nice touch and drive even more two-way traffic.
PUMA currently ranks as the second largest sports company on Facebook as measured by number of fans. As a popular lifestyle brand, the strong affinity felt toward PUMA by its patrons has led many to “Become a Fan” simply to showcase their brand loyalty and stamp their profile.
However, PUMA should be commended for taking the extra step and proactively reaching out to form new consumer connections through its social media efforts rather than settling for simply establishing a forum for existing fans to connect. Look for many more exciting contests and promotions from PUMA as Facebook continues to offer more customization opportunities and advances to its Pages feature.
Stay tuned for our next post in a series of reviews of the top sports brands on Facebook.
