Terry Tate Office Linebacker Reebok commercial case study

Thèmes abordés

Terry tate linebacker reebok commercial superbowl

Résumé du document

The market of sports goods and equipment is one of the most competitive in the clothing industry. Sports textile industry is ruled by three major international brands:
- German Adidas Group, founded by Adi Dassler in 1949.
- American group Nike, founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in 19621
- Reebok International, present on the market since 1890 in United Kingdom.
In this paper we are going to focus on Reebok International, and more precisely on a particular advertising campaign based on a fictive football player called Terry Tate and his role in a company as an "Office Linebacker". We are going to explain in a first step what is the marketing strategy used in this campaign, known as viral marketing. Then we are going to focus on how, and to what extent, this viral marketing trend is taking over classical advertising media. Last but not least, we will analyze the impact of the Terry Tate - Office Linebacker campaign on Reebok.
Reebok has been manufacturing running shoes since 1890, and became popular in the United-Kingdom with the first running shoes with spikes, worn by British top athletes. Later on, the company spread its core business over the world and became international. The name "Reebok" was introduced in 1958. In 1984 Reebok became American, due to a reverse acquisition2 performed by Paul Fireman, head of the North-American distribution license. From this time, Reebok's net sales increased from $13 million to $3.5 billion (source: Reebok's annual reports).

Extraits

[...] But the main target of Reebok was moving their attention from tv and magazines to internet, social networks and mobile communication. So, Reebok had to follow this trend and change its communication strategy to be able to reach these consumers, on their favorite channels of communication; and on the Internet the best strategy and the more trendy is viral marketing. Viral Marketing Among the different kinds of marketing we all know, like tribal marketing, ethnic marketing, there is one kind that appeared and developed itself along with the development of the Internet and the new means of communication: Viral marketing. [...]

[...] They become the action vectors of the brand when it comes to a viral campaign. With Terry Tate, Reebok clearly targeted these GenXers who are aware of everything that happens on the Internet, they are hungry of buzzes and funny videos. As we can figure out in the “confessions of a Gen in the case, most part of the morning time is dedicated to from the web. News, e-mails, CNN, web-radio etc So one of the first things Janet does arriving at work is watching videos she received by email from a co-worker or a friend. [...]

[...] The term appeared after a book by media critic Douglas Rushkoff 3 in 1994 Media Virus: Hidden agendas in popular culture. This term describes very well the concept as viral marketing is spreading very fast through the communication channels and it's impossible to control its diffusion like a human virus. Therefore it's an advertising technique very useful to companies because it costs less than a classical advertising campaign, it's very efficient and it enhances brand recognition. Viral marketing can take many forms. [...]

[...] Terry Tate was gaining all the attentions and Reebok was only mentioned by: “well Terry Tate wears Reebok and Reebok brand didn't play a significant role in the campaign, everything was about Terry and people remembered the campaign as “Terry Tate Office linebacker” and not as “Reebok's campaign”. The major indicator used here is the number of unique visitors on the Reebok web site. Success towards Generation X As we said, to succeed, ads have to be fun, attracting, memorable and they have to aim the right target. This target is mainly people that are now able to use Internet both at work and at home, people who grew up with the development of Internet and NTIC. [...]

[...] Then we are going to focus on how, and to what extent, this viral marketing trend is taking over classical advertising media. Last but not least, we will analyze the impact of the Terry Tate Office Linebacker campaign on Reebok. Reebok has been manufacturing running shoes since 1890, and became popular in the United-Kingdom with the first running shoes with spikes, worn by British top athletes. Later on, the company spread its core business over the world and became international. The name was introduced in 1958. [...]