Run Mokum, Run!

In order to inspire more people to go running (and to sell more sportswear), Nike recently launched the urban campaign ‘Unleashed Run, Take Mokum’.

Amsterdam-based advertising and design agency …,staat was asked to create a home for runners and a meeting-place for the campaign. It turned into a fantastic exclusive temporary shop in the Dutch capital, near the Vondelpark. (Click here for photos!) 

From here runs will be organized under the slogan ‘Take Mokum’ (Mokum is a colloquial term for Amsterdam), presenting running as a way to physically take over the streets of your city. To strengthen this idea, graffiti tags will be provided during future runs organized by Nike. This fresh campaign is a good example of how an increasing number of brands aims to profile itself in urban space. Nike does a good job by showing engagement with healthy activities and by connecting to its target groups through the Social Web.

At the same time, Nike+ became available as a GPS-based iPhone app. The app stimulates runners to challenge themselves to take their runs further with the ‘Challenge Me’ feature. At the same time they can receive feedback and encouragement from famous athletes and celebrities. Combining GPS and accelerometry technologies, the app is able to track both inside and outside runs. Work-outs can be synced and saved directly on Nikeplus.com profiles from iPhone and iPod touch, where also a bunch of graphically presented statistical information is made available. Click here to watch an interview with Kwamina Crankson, one of the developers of the app. Nike+ GPS can be downloaded for € 1.59, at least in The Netherlands. (For your information: Adidas has launched a similar app, MiCoach, which is available for free.)