July 23, 2009

Nike and Livestrong let the roads speak at Tour de France

Here’s a little ditty I wrote last week for my company’s blog - I know it’s a little old-newsy now, but I thought I’d put it up incase anyone hasn’t seen it yet.

image via Nike Livestrong

What if you could text, tweet or type a message to a robot, thousands of miles away, that graffitis your message on the floor of an international sporting event that millions of people watch everyday? Well, thanks to the Nike and the Livestrong Foundation now you can.

For Lance Armstrong’s return to this year’s Tour de France, Wieden + Kennedy, a Portland based agency, created a chalk printing robot that fans worldwide can submit inspirational messages to through Twitter , mobile texting, the campaign website , and online banner ads. The “chalkbot” then prints the message in Livestrong Yellow on the road that makes up the Tour de France course, approximately eight hours ahead of the Tour bikers. Fans who submit messages are sent a link to a photograph of their chalkbot message, as well as its GPS coordinates.

So far the results have been stunning. According to Widen + Kennedy over 90 percent of approved messages have come through Twitter. The chalkbot’s 40 character limit has produced some of the most poignant and touching messages, primarily from individuals or family members of people who have battled cancer. For years, fans at the Tour de France have decorated the course with hand written chalk messages for their favorite biker. The Livestrong and the chalkbot have taken that tradition to the next level, allowing people all round the world to take an active part in the event and creating visually stunning text in an instant.

Continually, the capabilities and applications of social media sites like Twitter are being pushed to new and exciting frontiers - more and more we’re seeing their application in the physical world. Utilizing twitter and live blogging at events is great, but it can also easily turn into just a bunch of white noise. Creating something interactive, relevant, and (if need be) flashy allows you to stand out from the crowd.

•