In September, Jordan Brand introduced UNITE, a new film series about the unifying power of basketball. Today, the third film debuts, starring Russell Westbrook, his…
Source: WHY NOT? UNITE. air.jordan.com
This post is less about the latest video in the Unite series, an ongoing video campaign combined with written blogs via the air.jordan.com site creating a discussion with fans built around the 2019-2020 footwear and apparel releases by Jordan Brand, and more about the consistent method of brand marketing Nike continues to utilize in building their direct to consumer strategy.
In 2016 Jordan Brand created the website. The initial output on the site was sparse. There were about 3 posts each month. Lately the brand has been very consistent in delivering content. It took four years to move air.jordan.com from an average site with around 50,000 visits per month to a site with considerable leverage with around 164,000 visits per month.
Now, when I originally discussed the site in the post above, I thought the brand would take a more active approach in regaining search. It took a moment for the site to find a groove. Launching at the end of 2016 meant that the learning curve would take them through 2017, 2018 would solidify strategy and 2019 would show growth. This couldn’t be more true when you consider the spike in traffic to the site according to Similarweb:
The spike in traffic coincides with back to school and of course Zion entering his first year in the league; but those items are surface and temporary as BTS subsides and Zion hasn’t played a game. Jordan Brand is actually spiking due to the consistency in storytelling.
In October they posted 4 stories.
In November the brand posted 10 stories.
In December the brand posted 13 stories.
The holiday season always improves traffic. The brand didn’t rely solely on this fact. They increased storytelling. With every post they shared each item via social. This contributed to their growth in visits from social, but what is more interesting is that the primary site that sends traffic to the air.jordan.com site is Nike.com at almost a 70% referral rate. Nike is building an internal digital storytelling system that is one of the most efficient marketing strategies in the sneaker industry. This is important as sites like Hypebeast, Complex, and Highsnobiety, all built on the sneaker industry have and are launching their own e-commerce and aren’t really looking to send people to other sites anymore.
Jordan Brand’s latest post features the third installment in the Unite series. There isn’t anything subtle about the video. They have taken a Puma endorsed emcee who is currently being deified, and utilized his music to establish the relationship between the emcee and Russell. Is this co-opting a movement? Yes. Is it slightly problematic? It could be, but I’m probably the only person thinking about that. Because the song is interspersed with spoken word on being different, the effect of Nipsey is not overstated, but for those who see Nipsey as a modern day Tupac it resonates, but it also counters Puma’s Lauren London campaign which caught the attention of people not even interested in sneakers.
Jordan Brand’s continued investment in long-form content and multimedia posts on SNKRS, Nike.com, Nike News and air.jordan.com forms a four pronged approach to regaining search and while I talk about this a lot, I repeat it because it’s kind of important.
