Nike Writes The Future

Following in the footsteps of past Nike football ads is the latest effort by the sportswear brand titled "Write The Future" which doesn't disappoint.

Nike went all out this time - the three minute spot is packed with football stars like Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Franck Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fabio Cannavaro, while also including cameos from other famous faces like Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer.

The goal? To set the scene for the World Cup where many a player has, for better or for worse, etched his name in the history book.

"One touch, tackle or free kick could crush a nation's hopes or cause them to build a statue in your honour. Drogba, Rooney and Ronaldo are ready to Write The Future," says Nike.

I wont spoil it if you haven't already seen it (it aired during last weekend's Champions League Final) but the best bits for me are the scenes with Rooney - although Cannavaro's (he's the Italian defender who clears Drogba's chipped shot off the line) future is pretty hilarious.

Enjoy.



The only negative thing I can think of is: Why does Rooney end up becoming a bankrupt trailer park slob? Did he have shares in the stock market (see 1:03 in the clip).

As if Rooney didn't need another reminder that the hopes of an entire nation are resting on him! No pressure! Write The Future or the media will do it for you.

Volvo's PR accident

A Volvo demonstration in Sweden of its new collision warning system fell to pieces last week, literally, when its S60 model smashed into a parked truck.

Luckily for us, Wired.co.uk was there to document the PR nightmare and you can watch the video here.

To the reporter's credit - it was mentioned in the story that the collision warning system had been working fine earlier in the day. But it's still pretty amusing to watch the brand new Volvo S60 fly through the testing tunnel at 30MPH and smash into the back of the truck - in front of a group of journalists.

A nightmare scenario for any brand. Reminds me of the time when a BBC reporter broke a phone that was being marketed as "unbreakable" during filming. Clip below.

Singapore's World Cup draw

I think most Malaysians would have felt a perverse sense of amusement at watching the "car crash" that was Singapore's recent bid for the FIFA World Cup 2010 broadcast rights.

Then, from a marketing point of view, it started to get really interesting last Friday when finally, with less than a month to go before kick-off, SingTel and StarHub secured the non-exclusively broadcast rights.

Time to sell the sponsorships. There isn't much time for all parties involved to recoup the fees but the World Cup is such a huge draw and marquee event that any brand would want to attach themselves to it.

I met up with a friend who works in Singapore's sports marketing industry over the weekend - he thought Tiger Beer and Singapore Pools would be at least two definite sponsors.

My colleagues in Singapore beat me to the punch on that one with a story today confirming that talks with Singapore Pools were indeed ongoing - but the tone of the story reflected a belief that the Singtel-StarHub World Cup deal had come a little too late.

Perhaps this unique situation leaves the door open only for Tiger Beer to emerge as the main sponsor - APB declined to comment when approached by Marketing mag Singapore.

And since we're on the topic of the World Cup - here's something we can all enjoy.

For the upcoming tournament in South Africa, the World Cup trophy will have its own Louis Vuitton carry-case.

"When you have the most beautiful girl in the world you hope she will wear the most beautiful dress," Jerome Valcke, secretary general of FIFA, explained. "That's exactly what we've done."

Web Wednesday refresh

Last night's Web Wednesday, although there was still plenty of drinking and networking going on, seemed a bit duller than usual. Is now the right time for the MDA to freshen up this monthly industry night?

I am pretty sure the numbers last night were the lowest for Web Wednesday so far this year - was it because there was no drink's sponsor this time? Maybe. But Khairul Syahar from Malaysia Airlines and Ian McKee from Vocanic were scheduled to speak which should have made the event, on paper, more attractive or maybe it didn't - how many of us want to sit and listen to another hard sell?

In the end, I didn't see any presentations being done last night but to be fair I am actually open to the idea of having client marketers on stage at Web Wednesday talking about what digital marketing means to their brands. And then get a conversation going with the audience.

They would have to do it early on in the night though, judging from past disasters, the later you leave it the less chance it gets noticed.

Over to you guys.