Take A Peck

It’s good to see major brands getting involved in social community/user-generated content, especially when it fits in the context of their brand. Adidas, in keeping with the theme of its “Impossible is Nothing” campaign, has launched the “Start My Story” website, which allows people to create a story about how they overcame their greatest challenge. Visitors can choose to let Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s daughter) or David Beckham walk them through the process of creating their story. The site is very catchy and well-designed. I decided to create a story of my own–the time I overcame dehydration and exhaustion to lead my soccer team to victory in a tournament about 10 years ago. A made up story. Hey, I was in a hurry, and didn’t feel like trying to think about a real challenge I’ve overcome. See below for some pictures of the Start My Story site.

Adidas has also partnered with Pepsi to release 500 million startmystory.com Pepsi cans in the U.S.

The important thing to remember with any user-generated, social sharing effort like this is that it has to resonate with the brand. Asking people to share stories like this works perfectly for adidas, but could backfire for many brands, especially if they tried to integrate their product into the story. For example if a soap brand asked people to talk about a time when they were very dirty and needed to get clean and used X soap. I know this is huge news, but most of the time, soap stories aren’t memorable. A sharing effort that involves stories, needs to either be about a brand people really care about (Apple, Harley-Davidson, etc) or should be built around a concept that the brand stands represents (for adidas, overcoming challenges).

What are your thoughts about brands asking customers to share stories about them?

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