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Great Scott! 2011 Nike MAG Marketing Hits 88mph

2011-nike-mag

A generation’s dream came true this week with Nike’s unveiling of the 2011 Nike MAG – self-lacing sneakers inspired by Marty McFly’s kicks in Back to the Future II, which were the envy of children everywhere in the 1980s. The reason we’re talking about it here? The marketing campaign – mostly digital, with short video […]

A generation’s dream came true this week with Nike’s unveiling of the 2011 Nike MAG – self-lacing sneakers inspired by Marty McFly’s kicks in Back to the Future II, which were the envy of children everywhere in the 1980s. The reason we’re talking about it here? The marketing campaign – mostly digital, with short video clips, websites and online word-of-mouth – has thus far been brilliant, hitting all the right nostalgia/curiosity/funny buttons.

It started with a YouTube clip called “McFly’s Closet,” posted on September 6 by an account named DocEmmettBrown88. (Awesome.) The clip has received over 1.5 million views in just 3 days.

And yesterday came the launch of nikemag.ebay.com, featuring a great new short with Bill Hader and Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd – looking and sounding just like we remember – as well as the significant announcement that Nike would be auctioning off 1,500 pairs of Nike MAGs, with all proceeds going to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. It’s something totally unexpected and simply good-spirited – all the more because eBay Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki will be matching donations up to $50 million.

This is an example of marketing at its best: fun, inventive, and completely feel-good. And it makes us excited for what’s coming next. Kudos to Nike – now we just need those hoverboards, and the human race will have achieved perfection.