Nike, the iPhone, and not being lazy

The first day of school and the beginning of a new year have one thing in common: lots of people making the resolution to hit the gym and get into shape. I am one of those people, but usually my new found enthusiasm lasts for about a month before I fall back into my slacker ways. After a summer that was filled with a little too much beer and red meat, I'm trying to motivate myself to get into shape.

The ever growing world of apps has expanded into the field of getting into shape. Nike is one of the leaders at producing apps to encourage people to work out. The Nike+ GPS app tracks your daily jogs. NikeWomen Training Club builds a fitness program for you on your smart phone, while Nike Football+ Master Control is designed to help soccer players train using a training regime developed by the coaches and trainers at the legendary Barcelona FC.

The app that interested me the most was the Nike Boom app. This app allows you to sync playlists from your iPhone with a workout routine. You select the sport that you're training for, the amount of time you plan on working out, and the type of workout you are doing. The app bases the music select on the intensity of the workout. Sports figures, tailored to the sport that you selected, chime in throughout your workout to provide tips and encouragement. Lebron James tells you how to best train for basketball, while Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary Duke University basketball coach provides general training tips.

Nike provides this app through the iTunes App Store free of charge. The question is why? The program doesn't directly sell Nike shoes or clothes. They're not making money from the app. The answer is that it provides good PR for Nike and spreads its brand recognition into the new frontier of apps. People who workout and train for sports are Nike's prime target audience, so providing a workout app is a logical move. Nike is using the four principles of persuasion by providing this app.

Action

Nike is making it easier and more streamlined for people to use their smart phones while working out. Instead of having to open a playlist in the music section of the phone and then open a workout plan app, Nike has combined the two into one easy to use app. Using the app also provides motivation for people to hit the gym, where they might use Nike products.

Identification

The identification principle is all about "what's in it for me". Nike Boom gives users an easy way to program their workout into their smart phone. They don't need to create a workout playlist, as the app does that for them. It also provides relevant training tips for the workout that the user is taking part in. It just makes the process easier and that answers the "what's in it for me" question.

Familiarity and Trust

Nike Boom utilizes the familiarity and trust persuasion principle extremely effectively. The Nike brand and the "Swoosh" logo are internationally recognized. There is a huge familiarity with Nike among the target audience for this app. If this app had been released as a generic workout app, without the Nike brand attached, it likely would not be that popular. The inclusion of Lebron James and Mike Krzyzewski, and other sports figures, gives some legitimacy to the tips and encouragement required. These are two world class sports figures who have well recognized brands and are renowned for their knowledge in the basketball world. Lebron is one of the most popular basketball players in the world, while Krzyzewski has coached Duke to four national championships and Team U.S.A. to an Olympic gold medal.

Clarity

The Nike Boom app is easy to use and easy to understand. It has a clean interface and makes use of the Nike logo and images of people like Lebron and Krzyzewski. A bold stop watch is in the top corner, counting down the workout time. It appears that it is extremely easy to input your workout information into the app. It looks like Nike has done a lot to make this app user friendly.

At the end of the day, this app is nothing but a PR and advertising tool for Nike. But that's ok. It provides a valuable tool for people who want to workout, while spreading Nike's brand to a new technological area.

I might have to grab it. Maybe it will make my workout period last more than a month for a change.

Wilfred or Wilfrid

On the eve of the beginning of the new school year, I received an email from an instructor (who may or may not specialize in online and print media editing) mentioning that the blog I was writing for the Winnipeg Free Press had lots of good writing and photos, but that I should check the spelling of our eighth prime minister. Four people reading over the blog (including myself) had overlooked the fact that Sir Laurier spelled his name "Wilfrid" not "Wilfred".

That was how my second year of CreComm was kicked off. It was an omen for the upcoming year and the utter importance of editing in any aspect of the communications business. Whether you're writing stories for a local newspaper, creating news releases for a not-for-profit organization or coming up with witty copy for a brand new advertising campaign, thorough editing is essential.

That's where the Editing Print and Online Media course comes into play. A major component of the CreComm program is writing and often "fatal errors", that could easily have been removed through the process of editing, lead to failed assignments. Had my blog post been an assignment for school, I would have been deducted 50 per cent and received a dreaded "auto-fail". Mistakes like this could easily be weeded out through the process of copy editing, which this course seeks to improve our skills in.

The editing process is much more than simple spelling correction though. Proper and thorough editing will streamline writing by smoothing out the style and formatting of the piece, while chopping out filler words. In a business that prides itself on the efficiency of writing, this process will not only make the writer's job easier, but it will communicate the essential message of the piece to audience with greater clarity.

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes my editing process is a little bit lax, a habit that was reinforced by year after year of professors paying no attention to the grammar of my writing, but last year was a wake up call and I'm working at stepping up my game. Editing Print and Online Media will allow me to improve on my skills. Now I just need to make sure I look in my Caps and Spelling before I use the names of any of our prime ministers.

Back Again

Life off the Couch is back after an extended hiatus. CreComm is back in session, so I've decided to resurrect this blog.

I had the opportunity to spend the summer travelling around Manitoba and blogging about it for the Winnipeg Free Press. I was able to see parts of the province that I had never gone to before, like Lynn Lake, Thompson, Manigotagan, and the Duck Mountains. Seeing the raw beauty that this province has to offer gave me a new perspective on what living in this province is all about and what it means to be a Manitoban.

This experience of writing a travel blog has been educational and I'm going to continue on with the travel theme of Life off the Couch. I'll be writing about Manitoba travel, to supplement the Free Press blog, while taking a look at places around the world that are interesting, exotic, or just plain weird. The world is huge and is open for exploration.

This blog is also part of the CreComm program at Red River College, so there will be a few posts mixed in that deal with public relations and editing in the media.

Stay tuned next week for snapshot of the history of Lockport, a town that just celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Chi-Town Muzak

CreComm has finally come to an end. It's kind of a weird feeling. After months and months of pulling out may hair from stressing out, it kind of feels like CreComm went out with a little bit of a whimper. I kind of mentally checked out a little earlier than I probably should of.

But first year is behind me now, so it's time to get ready for the CreComm Ad and PR majors trip to Chicago. The Windy City's always been on my list of American cities to visit. The history and style of the city has always appealed to me. It's considered America's Second City for a reason.

On the Chicago tip, my PR and Ad instructor extraordinaire, Kenton Larsen, has been blogging about different Chicago related topics for weeks now. His post about Chicago related songs inspired me to think about some of my favourite Chicago musicians. Chicago ranks right up there with New York and New Orleans as far as historical music hotbeds go. It's always been a blues and jazz mecca and has produced influencial rock, punk, and hip hop. Here are some of my favourite Chicago musicians.

Common



Screeching Weasel



Rise Against



Smashing Pumpkins



88 Fingers Louie



Kanye West

Volcano isn't just hitting airlines in the pocket books

When I travel, I usually blow through money like it's going out of style. Food and booze tend to empty out my wallet very quickly. Usually when I'm waiting at the airport, for a flight home, my bank account is sitting pretty close to empty.

That's why I can't imagine what people stranded in Europe, Asia, and Australia are going through right now. They're being forced to wait out a cloud of volcanic ash, each day eating more and more into their savings.

The airlines hit hard by this delay, don't seem to concerned with helping out their stranded passengers. Here's a story from the Associated Press, examining the tribulations of being stuck in transit.

Detroit: The Mogadishu of the Great Lakes

This last week was a turbulent time in a lot of far flung areas of the globe (like every week). The government was toppled in Kyrgyzstan, with Russia seemingly up to some Cold War era manipulation. Dozens of protesters in Bangkok were killed, as Thailand's fissure between the urban and rural population expanded into violence. In Sudan, thousands fled south across the border into Uganda, fearing election time violence.

The world is a dangerous place. Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq, civil wars continue to rage across Africa and political unrest burns in many Asian countries. In cities throughout the world, dodging bullets and bomb blasts is a part of daily life.

Last week CNN released a list of what they consider to be the world's most dangerous cities. Strife-torn urban areas like Kinshasa, Baghdad, Karachi, and Beirut are on the list to no one's surprise. The never ending Mexican drug war propelled border city, Juarez on to the list, while Cape Town's reputation as one of the world's murder capitals places it high on CNN's list.

The big surprise of the CNN's list is the inclusion of Detroit and New Orleans on the list. Now don't get me wrong, crime is definitely rampant in both cities, as New Orleans continues to recover from Katrina and Detroit from the collapse of the automotive industry, but it's tough to compare these two cities with places like Kinshasa and Baghdad, where civil wars rage through the streets.

It's a strange call by CNN to include these two American cities on the list, while leaving places like Mogadishu, Freetown, and even Rio de Janiero, where gang-related violence engulfs sections of the city. CNN makes the claim that they compiled their list using data from numerous respectable sources, but at face value it looks like the news network was looking for a controversial hook to draw in readers and viewers. If they didn't include American cities, there's always the potential for readers to pass over they story, with the "it's happening somewhere else" attitude. They definitely succeeded, as Detroit and New Orleans' inclusion has stirred up some controversy.

Here's a link to CNN's report: The world's most dangerous cities?

Journey to the Nub Part 3

I'll close up my chronicle of our journey to the Northwest Angle with the reason we travelled out there. Here's the article I wrote for my journalism class.


Flag Island Resort sits at the end of a long ice road that winds across the frozen Lake of the Woods. This ice road begins at the end of a long road that cuts through pristine, untouched wilderness. Flag Island feels like the edge of the world. That feeling is what brings droves of fishermen there every year.

“It's part of the experience, travelling down that wilderness road,” said Dan Schmidt, who has managed the 74 year old resort for the last 35 years. “It feels like you're going to no man's land.”

Flag Island sits 15 minutes by car off the shore of the Northwest Angle, the only part of the contiguous United States of America above the 49th parallel. The Angle, as the locals refer to it, owes its existence to American and British diplomats not being able to read a map properly. When they set the border between the U.S. and what would become Canada in 1783, they misread the map of the Lake of the Woods region. Because of this error, the fishing resort community of 8o permanent residents is separated from its home state, Minnesota, by Lake of the Woods and a heavily forested chunk of Manitoba.

Over 1,000 tourists visit the Northwest Angle every year to experience this secluded, isolated peninsula of land and the islands that surround it. In the winter they come from all over the American Midwest to fish for the highly prized and very savoury walleye. Most resorts set fishermen up in a tin walled, cramped ice house out on the lake. Flag Island Resort has a different philosophy when it comes to ice fishing.

“We don't emphasize ice houses. In an ice house you spend hours on end staring at a tin wall,” Schmidt said, as he sat in the living room of his house on the island. “We're in the middle of some beautiful wilderness, so why put people into a cramped shack.”

Flag Island Resort offers a guided ice fishing service that sets guests up right out on the ice, so they can fish surrounded by Lake of the Woods' legendary scenery. Deer, moose, fox, and timber wolf sightings are common and that helps to bring people back to the resort year after year.

The natural beauty of the Northwest Angle has drawn Duluth, Minnesota's Mark Bergstedt to Flag Island every winter since 1978. For the last ten years, he has brought his daughter, Christina, up for a father-daughter ice fishing weekend.

“If you hunt or fish or just vacation, this is a great spot,” explained Bergstedt, as he enjoyed a beer in the resort's rustic, wood-panelled main lodge. “Look around you. It's pure unspoiled wilderness. What more could you ask for.”

Visit www.lakeofthewoodsresorts.com to learn more about the secluded Northwest Angle. To plan your next fishing getaway, visit www.flagislandresort.com.