Nike is launching a new hybrid ad campaign during the NFL playoffs that will try to lure potatoes off their couches and onto the Internet.
The new ads are cliffhangers that feature three athletes in three different spots -- sprinter Marion Jones, slugger Mark McGwire, and snowboarder Rob Kingwill. The idea was to create enough drama to lure viewers online to see the ads' endings.
TV viewers will be directed to whatever.nike.com, where they can choose from seven different endings for the Quicktime-format commercials and find information about the athletes and Nike products.
"Traditionally, you'd have a 30- or 60-second advertising experience on TV," said Ian Yolles, marketing director for Nike.com. "But in this case, you'll get up from the couch, go to the site, and have an extended interactive experience.
"If you want to buy the shoe, you can do that. And then, if you want to get back up and continue watching your game, you can do that, and the shoe is on its way to you," Yolles said.
In one of the spots, a sports fan goes dashing after sprinter Marion Jones -- who occasionally taunts her pursuer -- until the ad abruptly ends as they run underneath several chainsaws being juggled in the air.
The ads raise a critical question: How will they play among viewers without an Internet connection?
Wayne Friedman, a sports marketing reporter with Advertising Age magazine, said the campaign could upset some viewers, but interrupting an ad isn't the same as interrupting a program.
"It's a commercial after all, and people might say, 'Fine, I don't really care how it ends.' Other people might leave, and maybe TV networks might be upset that people are turning off shows to see what the ending of the spot is," Friedman said.
Yolles confirmed that the networks were concerned about drawing viewers away from the TV set. That's why two networks have refused to run the "continued at whatever.nike.com" conclusion to the spots. Instead, the ads will simply display the whatever.nike.com URL.
"This is very much about the inevitable convergence between these two worlds," Yolles said. "They're concerned we'll draw eyeballs away from the network to the Internet."
"It raises interesting questions about the future of traditional TV advertising as we know it and the inevitable convergence of these mediums," Yolles said.
Broadcast TV has dealt with such issues before, Friedman said.
"It's just the same as how the cable networks are treated: You can run some generic branding spots. But you can't say, 'HBO: Sopranos, Sunday night, 8:00. Be there,'" he said. "Same thing, so it's almost like tune-in advertising, which the cable networks can't do on broadcast networks."
