“Oh Nike, how I love thee.”

Sure, they’re good at making sportswear, but when it comes to marketing they’ve always been far ahead of the curve.

Today’s New York Times has an excellent article, The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life, highlighting Nike’s new marketing strategy. It seems that the shoe giant has revised its entire approach to marketing to focus on marketing that consumers actually want, rather than marketing they can’t avoid.

According to the NYT, “Behind the shift is a fundamental change in Nike’s view of the role of advertising. No longer are ads primarily meant to grab a person’s attention while they’re trying to do something else — like reading an article. Nike executives say that much of the company’s future advertising spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities and local sports competitions.”

In their effort to be more meaningful instead of being more loud they created useful online resources and in-person programs that people are actually thankful to be a part of.

Not surprisingly, it’s paying off quite handsomely for them.

In the past a mediocre product backed by a massive marketing budget could be quite successful. Today, even the most massive of marketing budgets can’t disguise mediocrity. But products and experiences that are truly useful will practically market themselves.

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