It was no accident!

Yesterday was an epic day in the world of advertising and marketing. It was a day that proved that our industry is more important than ever.

In a world of "free" social media and programs like Canva, much of the business community has decided that marketing and advertising are now skills that can be done by the front desk admin or their 16 year old nephew. Many business owners have somehow missed the message of how important well done advertising and marketing can be to business growth.

But yesterday proved that an ad campaign (whether it sparks a positive or negative reaction) can make ALL the difference for a business.

Monday night I shared Nike's Colin Kaepernick's ad on my FB cover photo. Although I ALWAYS believe in doing what is right and treating everyone the same, I have learned my lesson on mixing business with politics and religion. With that said, I received the following message from someone I respect a lot

"If I was your client I would leave based off of your new cover photo!" Wait, What??? Now I imagine if I had written a strong description about my feelings regarding the ad then this person's opinion would have seemed a bit more warranted. However, I posted with no description or rhyme or reason.

Here is the actual reason behind me posting the ad:

I posted because I knew Monday night, going into Tuesday, that Nike had just released the MOST IMPORTANT ad of the last decade (if not more). Make no mistake, Nike knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they chose to run with the campaign and they knew when to release it.

When better to release such a controversial ad then the end of a holiday weekend when everyone is sitting back relaxing and scrolling on their phones?

We're talking Nike here. Nike has spent over $3 Billion dollars in the last year in advertising money.....BILLION, with a B. Nike understood both the positive feedback and the back lash they would receive when going live with this campaign. It's Nike!!! I imagine somewhere there is a cost analyses, to the penny, that was done in depth before the perfectly leaked ad via the controversial star character came out. This was no mistake.

Nike also had to know that you can't pay enough to get a President to tweet about your brand (rather it be positive or negative) and when it's a President that can already be polarizing they weighed the cost of what a negative tweet could result in. It's Nike!

Nike knew that releasing the ad via Kaepernick's account after a day full of drinking for many Americans would cause emotional reactions (and in America when we feel emotional about something we share it to our FB page!) You CAN NOT pay for that amount of organic reach anymore.

So yesterday when I posted the "Controversial Nike Ad" it was done in mad respect for the game. The game of advertising. The game that I've been told is on it's way out as the public becomes more tech savvy and social media remains a "Free" way to advertise. The game that is my livelihood.

I posted the "Controversial Nike Ad" because Nike had people in every community, from every race and every religion and every part of the country saying their name today. Whether you agree with the ad or not, with the message or not, you have to see it was a well calculated and timed out move and with that Nike officially called checkmate. Nike is the ultimate gamer in this thing we call advertising. Well done Nike, well done!