During the Playoffs, Nike turned its Nike Basketball webpage over to a data viz app called Epic that calculated which Nike-sponsored player was getting the most tweets per hour. Not surprisingly, Dallas Mavericks power forward and NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki (pictured) was ahead in that ranking on Monday afternoon, which gave him the largest picture on the page. The app also measures which teams were getting the most tweets per hour, a stat in which the Mavericks trounced the Miami Heat.
Nike worked with digital agency R/GA on the program, which began at the start of the NBA Playoffs. A link for “kicks” also details what shoes players were wearing during the games. Consumers visiting the site can click through to some of the sneakers to buy them. Another option was to fire off a ready-made tweet about the shoes at the player. For instance, if you liked the Nike Hyperdunk 2010 that Nowitzki wore, you could tweet this message at him: “#SPEED makes @swish41 an undeniable force #OnTheCourt. What defines your favorite player? #epic.”
Matt Halfhill, founder and publisher of sneaker blog Nice Kicks, says Nike is way ahead of its competitors with Epic. “I think the new way to enjoy a game is to have your TV on and have your iPhone or smartphone in your hand,” Halfhill says. “You no longer have to have a meetup of 20 people. I watch a game and I’m interacting with thousands of people.”