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Document 63 of 67.

Copyright 1998 Information Access Company,
a Thomson Corporation Company;
ASAP
Copyright 1998 Capital Cities Media Inc.
WWD

May 15, 1998

SECTION: No. 97, Vol. 175; Pg. 14B; ISSN: 0149-5380

IAC-ACC-NO: 20614290

LENGTH: 911 words

HEADLINE: SPORTS FIGURES; Nike marketing

BYLINE: Feitelberg, Rosemary

BODY:
NEW YORK -- If aggressiveness determines who wins and loses in the sporting world, Nike, despite spending cutbacks this year, still buries the competition.

In 1997, Nike outspent not only its direct competitors -- Reebok, Champion and Nautica -- but the entire fashion and beauty pack, too, scoring the number-one slot on The Big Spenders list.

This year, the stakes could go higher in the image game, not only for Nike, but for the entire active category, as new competitors continue to encroach on their territory.

With Polo Sport, Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY Active flexing some serious marketing muscle, non-designer firms -- especially athletic footwear makers -- are working to magnify their images.

Faced with a maturing footwear market and high-pressure pricing, some athletic firms such as Reebok -- which didn't rank among the top 100 fashion and beauty spenders since most of its advertising is in footwear -- will downplay professional athletes in their ads to reduce expenses. By replacing well-known jocks -- a staple in activewear ads for years -- with unknown sports and fitness enthusiasts, Reebok is hoping to appeal to more consumers, especially women.

And despite plans to reduce its annual $ 211 million advertising budget, Nike has several new initiatives on the horizon.

For the official launch of its high-performance apparel called Alpha, Nike will introduce a new logo -- five circles placed horizontally. The circles represent a five-step design process. The company plans to introduce an Alpha ad campaign in the second half of this year.

Nike is making a "major investment" in World Cup Soccer '98, which kicks off in France next month, said Chris Zimmerman, director of advertising for Nike. As the endorser of six World Cup teams, including Brazil and the U.S., Nike is using players from those teams in ads and commercials.

Nike, which unveiled its first apparel TV campaign in January -- "The evolution of skin" -- plans to give apparel a more prominent role in its advertising, Zimmerman said. Pleased with the reaction to that campaign, Nike plans to continue to run it for an undetermined amount of time, since apparel, especially women's, is a "significant growth opportunity," he said.

To connect with more teenage girls, Nike unveiled a series of commercials that profiled a female high school basketball team's championship season. To build a better rapport with its targeted viewers, Nike set up a Web site quizzing them about their take on the commercials and how it related to their own personal experiences.

Nike, which routinely shoots 100 commercials each year, also uses print and outdoor advertising. The effectiveness of a campaign is measured by the strength of a message more so than the medium that is used, Zimmerman noted.

Another company that's built its business around men's, Champion, said it spent about $ 8 million on men's in 1997, considerably more than Competitive Media Reporting's figure of $ 4.9 million. And this year, Champion said it will kick in about $ 2 million more to advertise women's products, especially those related to the WNBA.

The company spends about 62 percent of its budget running commercials on TNT and ESPN, a Champion spokeswoman said.

In July -- the start of its fiscal year -- Champion is turning over its account from TBWA Chiat/Day New York to Long Haymes Carr, a Winston-Salem, N.C., agency that handles advertising for its parent company, Sara Lee Corp.

The company aims to create a more cohesive corporate brand image with Long Haymes Carr, which has created advertising for Sara Lee's Hanes since 1962, she said.

Champion Products' TV campaign reflected what appears to be a growing sentiment in the activewear market: an anti-big brand, anti-commercialization sentiment. Instead of attacking the wide world of sports in color, Champion shot both its print ads and commercials in black and white. The 30-second spots featured traffic signs with such messages as "Please Report All Agents to Parks Commission," "Limo Free Zone" and "No Shirts, No Shoes, No Shoe Contracts."

As the official outfitter of the WNBA, Champion teamed up with the NBA and Lady Foot Locker to develop a TV commercial for the league's inaugural season last summer.

Nautica had a $ 13 million media budget for its apparel, home furnishings and fragrances, according to CMR. But the company claims it spends closer to $ 20 million. About $ 6 million of that is spent to plug its Competition line of activewear.

Last year, Nautica tried a few new tactics -- running ads on kiosks in San Francisco, on commuter railroad platforms in the New York tri-state area and took to the air to fly banners over sports events it sponsored.

Starter, the New Haven, Conn.-based company that built its business by putting its logo on licensed NFL apparel, spends more than $ 6 million on media -- 30 percent higher than the CMR results.

To flaunt its authenticity, Starter primarily uses pros who compete in its products for TV advertising.

And for the third consecutive year, Starter will recruit new models from Vibe magazine's annual music seminar, which will be held here in August. The event draws emerging artists and executives from the music industry.

Visitors to Starter's booth are encouraged to try on and be photographed wearing Starter activewear, outerwear and accessories, with the possibility of being featured in an upcoming Starter print campaign.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

IAC-CREATE-DATE: May 22, 1998

LOAD-DATE: May 23, 1998