COMPANY: Nike
TIMEFRAME: March-May 2005
How does a major corporation pull off a community-relations win? It's easier than you think. Here's how sportswear giant Nike did it: It wrote a large check, it signed
a soccer star to appear, and it invited U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona to attend.
It's a surprisingly effective strategy, judging by the recent success of "NikeGO," a broad initiative by the fitness apparel company intended to get kids on their feet and
moving. Most recently, NikeGO partnered with SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids) and the National Head Start Association (NHSA) to bring an early
childhood physical activity program to preschoolers in Head Start schools.
A March event launching the new program resulted in more than 100 media hits in TV, radio and print.
It's easy to view any partnership between Nike and Head Start with a skeptical eye. Nike is, after all, the company that took a media beating a few years back regarding its
use of cheap child labor overseas to make expensive sneakers for American feet. On the other hand, Nike's CEO has been open about the sweatshop issue, calling it "a cloud that has
been over Nike's head," while human-rights groups say the company has made improvements.
With this as background, Nike has stepped up to become the largest private funder of NHSA, with plans to issue a series of one-year grants totaling $2.5 million during a
five-year period.
To tout the inauguration of that relationship Nike, SPARK and Head Start staged two events in March to launch the program officially. In Los Angeles, a Head Start facility
played host to Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets, who talked up the virtues of exercise to an audience comprised largely of executives from area Head Start schools along
with leaders from Boys & Girls Clubs and from Junior Achievement.
While the Los Angeles event was well-attended by local civic leaders, the serious action was in Chicago's Casa Central Head Start, where children swarmed around soccer star
Mia Hamm and parents heard words of encouragement from U.S. Surgeon General Carmona. The audience topped 100, including members of the local media. And a VNR released that night
drew more than 60 TV hits nationally.
With the NikeGo Head Start program set to premier in six more cities this year (Anchorage, Memphis, Orlando, Washington D.C., Portland and New York City), organizers targeted
the VNR and press releases to local media in those places along with national publications that have shown an interest in children's health topics. Education Week,
Newsweek, Parents and Child covered the launch. "We wanted to have people understand how important it is to get kids going and get them physically active,"
says Lee Weinstein, Nike's director of corporate communications.
"Certainly media was important, but the community-influence piece was just as important," says Mark Lynn Ferguson, NHSA's communications manager. In both Los Angeles and
Chicago, "to have those community VIPs out there to see the importance of the program was at least as meaningful as the media coverage," he adds.
In order to draw those community VIPS and to land those media hits, event organizers had to leap some logistical hurdles. The timing was right to book the Surgeon General,
who it turned out was going to be in Chicago that day anyway, and the cache of Head Start was enough to get his people interested.
The hard part? Finding the right piece of real estate.
"A big part of the planning came in finding a [Head Start] center that we felt was representative of the Head Start community, a place that had the elements of ethnic
diversity that Head Start represents," explains Diane Whitehead, program development director at NHSA.
The solution to finding a location involved considerable internal communications between the PR executives planning the events and the Head Start officials in charge of
activities at the local level. "These are spaces that are used throughout the day by young children, their families and teaching staff," Whitehead says. "We had to be sensitive to
that."
Throughout the planning phase, weekly conference calls among the three partners helped ensure that everything stayed on track. With the locations nailed down, generating
media interest proved relatively easy. The increasing media coverage surrounding childhood obesity gave this launch a push when it came time for the PR staff to make their pitches
to the journalists.
"They've heard a lot about the problem, and simply being able to say that we had [an event] that could fulfill this educational need for people, that often was enough to hook
them," Whitehead says.
Nike and its partners followed up the launch events with a May reception for elected officials and a meeting with the Congressional Fitness Caucus. Nike's government-affairs
people in Washington, D.C., have the clout to make that happen, a fact whose ramifications are not lost on Ferguson. "Affiliation with Nike never hurts," he says. "It helps raise
attention for the Head Start brand and, for any organization - whether for-profit or non-profit - that is certainly valuable."
Looking back, Weinstein says there is one thing he would probably do differently the next time. It's a small matter of logistics, but one worth keeping in mind. "When you
have 4- and 5-year-olds in the room, keep the speeches short," he says. "If you have a room full of children who are going to get antsy, you have to accommodate that."
Contacts: Mark Lynn Ferguson, 703.600.1127, [email protected]; Lee Weinstein, 503.671.3080, [email protected]; Diane Whitehead, 703.299.7515, [email protected]
Good Planning Makes Good Partnerships
Looking to generate CR through a partnership between for- and non-profit organizations? Mark Lynn Ferguson, communications manager at the National Head Start Association,
offers these success tips:
- Pick your partners carefully. The company you keep in the press matters. The ideal partner has a sterling reputation, an established area of expertise, a strong
brand, experience building constructive partnerships and the ability to draw media attention. - Get familiar. Organizational cultures vary, so meet frequently, especially during the early stages of your partnership. Be direct, open and honest. It's essential that
each partner understand the other's communications strategies, goals and stakeholders. - Calibrate. Partners may have different things they want to communicate; make sure you're on the same page so that the overall message is clear. Designate one spokesman
from the corporation and one from the nonprofit to help ensure message consistency.
And keep in mind:
- Nonprofits, tap your partner's PR resources: Corporate partners often possess advanced PR capabilities. Use them if you can.
- Companies, leverage your partner's credibility: The best nonprofits have solid reputations with constituents, communities and sometimes the entire nation.