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Walking through Limerick’s Crescent today there was some serious bucket shaking going on. As one collector approached me I slowed my pace down a little. Sensing I was wavering he delivered the deal-clincher “It’s a very good cause, you know, building houses for all the coloureds in Africa”. He was collecting for the very worthy Niall Mellon Trust, and I knew what he meant. Nonetheless I smiled to myself whilst popping in some loose change.
I am shaking my own virtual bucket now as I am going to run the Limerick Women’s Mini Marathon on Sunday 4th October. I did it 3 years ago (my first ever sporting event!) and ran the 7k in 50 mins. This year I am going to put myself under a bit of pressure and aim for 32 mins. I am running in aid of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin and all donations are greatly appreciated. I have never had cause to use Crumlin Children’s Hospital and I sincerely hope I never do. I can imagine little worse than one of your children being seriously ill and I think Our Lady’s in Crumlin do truly fantastic work.
And to encourage you to dig deep here’s a snippet from the 1969 film Sweet Charity:
I ordered my 5 yr old’s schools books online last Thursday. I had lost her book list and, rather than face the shame of asking other (more organised) Mammies for a copy, I went online in the hopes that the 21st Century had not passed our Irish bookstores by.
I came upon O’Mahoney’s book store via a Google Ad. I found the booklist for my daughter’s school/class in less than a minute, and within less than 5 minutes my back to school book shopping was completed. I also opted for the option of having the books covered at a cost of €1 per book.
I had 3 automated emails from O’ Mahoneys – the 1st confirmed my order. The 2nd confirmed it was ready for dispatch and the 3rd informed me that it had been handed over to the delivery company and gave me the url to track my order status.
If only my mum could have done that x 5 when we were growing up! I remember her going to different bookshops, taking a ticket and queueing, buying some books, ordering others that were out of stock or not yet in and returning a week later to take another ticket and repeat the process. My parcel arrived today and I have to say the whole process was painless. I don’t envisage myself buying school books any other way again.
Nike+ is a fantastic innovation whereby users, using their Apple iPod and a Nike+ sensor, can track and upload their runs to the NikePlus.com website. Runs are compiled into charts and personal bests/goals achieved etc. With over 2 million users worldwide, it’s a great motivational tool. It’s also a fantastic marketing and up-selling tool for Nike and a great example of companies successfully collaborating.
Over the last few weeks Nike has introduced users to the updated NikePlus website. The new version is less Flash heavy and loads faster. The layout is clearer, there is a strong emphasis on community and crucially Nike has made an important step to integrating social media.
Forums are more prominent
Users can link their accounts to Facebook & Twitter to share their running activity
Users can import their contacts (currently from Gmail only) to find current Nike+ users
Users are encouraged to invite friends to join Nike+ and grow the community
Additionally Nike has introduced a new Nike+ running band with a lower price point than an iPod, which opens the Nike+ system up to a much larger potential audience.
Nike captured 48% of the market share for running shoes in 2006 and that rose to 61% in 2008. The Nike+ system is largely credited with that increase. Additionally, lets consider the data that Nike is gathering for free from over 2 million runners worldwide. Nike knows for example that runners in the US run more often in Winter than do runners in Europe, but for shorter distances. Nike has data based on age, location, sex and weight. Nike knows what music runners are buying via the NikePlus linkup to iTunes. Nikes knows the world’s favourite powersongs. All this places Nike in a very favourable position to respond to that data and develop future products and services accordingly.
Running is often a very solitary endeavour, and there is something encouraging as you log-in to see runners from all over the world log their runs. It gives a sense of being part of something bigger – of all us runners, the Nike+ Community, clocking up our kilometers on the Nike counter. For Nike the opportunity to harness this community spirit is golden.
here’s a snippet from the 1969 film Sweet Charity:
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