Google, Nike Debut Joga Soccer Community

Google and Nike have quietly teamed-up to launch Joga, an invitation only social network for soccer enthusiasts, InsideGoogle reports. When I tried to log in with my Gmail account, I received the following message...

“Joga is unique, because it's an organically growing network of trusted friends. It is one of a kind network that focuses solely on a common interest around the game of soccer. Joga will help you connect to people who share the same passion for the game and also access exclusive content around athlete profiles, video clips and photos.”

This is a fascinating marketing program. It leverages Nike's brand, Google's savvy in building buzz through seeding programs (remember how Gmail and Orkut rolled out?) and its registration, community and video technologies. Tying it all together is soccer/football, which needless to say has millions of passionate fans worldwide.

There's a big story here, gang. Google is using its marketing and technology know-how to become a media partner in the launching of branded communities. In some ways, they're emulating Yahoo and MSN. It's a departure from Google's focus on driving more customers toward search marketing. They're not just moving into brand marketing programs, but branded communal marketing programs. Philipp has more.

Technorati Tags: Community, Google, Nike, Word of Mouth, Soccer

Comments

[Netmusafir]

http://search-engine-blog.seocase.net/2006/03/18/google-and-nikes-communit-game-jogacom-exclusive-screenshots/

[or]

I agree its a big story. This plus google's co-branded home pages with the likes of dell and comcast are being overlooked in general. In my opinion google has done a good job of laying low with these strategic moves. I think it will not be big stories until the impact is realized in about a year and a half to two years from now.

What if google starts to open up social networking sites with other brand name organizations using google accounts, and allowing other companies to use their vast infracstructure not only for search, but now their personalized home page, orkut, gmail, groups, video, and so on

[Mark]

Nike's been heavily running an ad featuring Eric Cantona with the Joga Bonito/Play Beautiful theme. Also, Wieden produced a video, Ginga, all about Brazilian soccer (futebol) that was distributed with Eurosport's soccer catalog and also played on Fox Soccer Channel. This is a full-on World Cup year effort from Nike.

[makethelogobigger]

I’m a soccer fan, so I think anything that promotes the sport is cool. I signed up and will wait the few weeks it says before I get my invite, hopefully.

While it is #1 the rest of the world, here in the US it just about survives as a fifth major sport, and the last thing it needs are any barriers that limit its promotion.

It's a small nit, but the barrier in this case is making this an invite-only thing. Who cares who gets in? The goal is to spread the word, not limit it, right? (Myspace and other social sites aren’t invitation only, why would this be?)

To me, true organic promotion comes from wom within the consumer-base, free of any rules a brand may try to establish on them.

[peter]

In the mid 1990's I started putting newspapers up online for Advance Publications. The first was New Jersey Online. One of our early claims to fame was our enormously popular soccer forum program. We tapped into the passion of those wacky NJ soccer fans and moms and dads. So popular that we out dueled the New York Times in traffic.

The learning then…. Communities are powerful. So, YES, Goggle is onto something big, very powerful and Nike has dived in.

[Marion Paige]

I agree, this is a big story, a far bigger story than anyone here has mentioned.

Why would Google be only interested in a branded site for Nike? Nike is only one advertiser. There are a lot of sports related advertisers and a lot of people who want to market stuff to sports fans.

The big story here is that this Nike site may just be a test of Google's version of a Vertical, i.e., Google's version of a Niche site dedicated to sports. Next, would be a similar site for Finance, Health, etc. This kind of site from Google would make a blog site/vertical rather 1996 wouldn't it?

First Officepirates.com now this from Google. There is a trend here.

[Dieter Rappold]

Well I'm not so sure if this is a smart and very good step. I think it's overbranded and lacks authenticity and credibility as well as the opennes the game provides...

also some critical words from "the register" on this:

Of course, the reality of Joga places the "community site" as little more than an advertising portal. The first image you see on the site is that of a swoosh-branded Ronaldo.The only publicly accessible video at this time is a Nike advertisement.

Apparently the way to play soccer right is with Nike shoes on, and members of this "community" will hear this message repeated again and again.

Nike and Google looking to make money off folks won't bother anyone. That's their job, even though Google often denies that its main priority is making money.

The only real problem with Joga is that it continues Google's ruse of being some kind of entity that can cure social ills via text ads. This time it's going to fix the world's most popular sport.

source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/21/google_soccer_vendetta/

[Baba]

An update: Now that the World Cup is well underway, we can start to look at how Nike has done with this -- especially in comparison to Adidas, which has focused much more on traditional media.

We did a post about this at our blog, using Alexa data:
www.hhcc.com.

Early results: Nike + Google beats Adidas.

[Craig]

I'm currently studying Joga.com's success. Just wondering what you think post World Cup? Looks to me like Nike had the edge however Adidas did boast good sales figures.

[Nike SB]

Nike with Ipod applications. Nike and Apple coming together is a perfect combination and if this can motivate a healthier lifestyle than more power to them.