(Continued from Part 1)
One of the best (if not the best) examples of gaming going real-world is the Nike+iPod Sport Kit. For 30 bucks, you get a sensor button that fits into any Nike+ compatible shoe and you also get a wireless receiver for your iPod nano. As you run, the two devices communicate with each other and provide you with both visual feedback (on the iPod screen) and voice feedback (through the headphones) regarding your pace and distance. You don’t need to keep a road journal- this baby does it for you.
However, from hearing those who own the sport kit talk about it, you’ll realize that a big chunk of this kit’s brilliance lies in its online community. When you sync your iPod, your progress gets automatically uploaded to the Nike+ website. From here, you can collect points, earn virtual trophies, and challenge your friends to time and distance trials, just like any online racing game.
Game of the Year
Above is a screen from one of Cabel’s challenges. He (quite hilariously) sums up his experience with Nike+iPod, calling it the multiplayer game of the year:
This “game” surprised me, and that’s saying something. Everyone can play this game. You should play this game. Run, walk, skip, who cares: you get points, you get exercise, you get to try to kick the ass of your stupid friends (who you love) or suffer bitter defeat, you get to explore your neighborhood and you get some fresh air and you see some funny things. You get to overhear insane conversations in hilarious tiny fragments. You get to buy weird new clothes, and hopefully even wear ridiculous headbands that, somehow, don’t bother you one bit. And while you’ll wonder what you’re going to do when winter hits, or if you can keep it up forever, you’ll give it a shot. Because you get to run into the world and accomplish something, however small, offline and online all at once.
And isn’t everything better when it’s a game?
Nike+iPod is probably one of the most innovative collaborations… ever. It’s two great companies combining what they do best, but also coming together to ask the question “how can we make exercise more fun?”
I think I know where I’m doing my holiday shopping this year.
You should check out this “any shoe adapter” for the iPod sport kit. Necessity is the mother of invention…
http://www.switcheasy.com/
Nice! Thanks for the link
Nice one Jack. But I think this works in comparison with your post about engagement or brand utility. Im originally from Australia but now work in the UK and I find it amusing to see how different markets utilise what ever buzz word we are up to this month. I think Faris’s post on zero sum is the clearest viewpoint I have seen on the subject. But Nike are killers at this. They have linked the entertainment element of the ipod with something that cuts to the heart of runners. Their progress and tracking of that. Its the mix of the emotional tie through entertainment and the functional element which you used Nikon as an example of.The brand mix is also awesome as well