What have a trainer, a burger and Kanye West got in common???

…Well.... a trainer, a burger and Kanye West lead me on a blog hunt to the SICKEST new album in the past year!! OMG anyone that hasn’t come across A Trak’s ‘debut’ album, ‘Running man’.… COME ACROSS HIM – it is AAAAAmazing. …The worst thing about it is that I can’t download it yet because it’s only in the States and I don’t do that illegal shiz.

Let’s back track….

I came across the track because I was on Kanye’s blog who was mentioning a famous artist who has made a Nike trainer out of a burger. This ‘trainerburger’ ( a very beefy Air Max 90) was first mentioned on ‘Fools Gold’, A trak’s blog. I followed the blog to A trak’s Myspace page, which is PR-ing his fantastic new album which has been produced in partnership with Nike + and is the most recent album addition to the Nike + playlist available on itunes.

So the planner point? Nike has mastered internet PR in a BIG way.

Serendipity (me tripping over things online) meant that the Nike brand received a hit every step of my internet path from Kanye’s blog, to A trak’s blog, to Myspace, to itunes. 4 hits in 4 minutes. And the reason?

• Nike commissioned Olle Hemmendorff, a Swedish illustrator to interpret a piece of iconic Nike clothing (PR drive no.1)
• Nike asked A trak to produce an album for Nike + (Pr drive no.2)
• A Trak wrote about Olle Hemmendorff on his blog (Pr drive (being endorsement) no.3) (A-Trak is signed to Kanye West’s record label)
• Kanye wrote about the trainers on his blog (Pr drive (being endorsement) no.4)
• A Trak has got all his web touch points covered – myspace, facebook, blog, itunes etc)
• People like me give him and Nike et al a shout out. (Citizen PR – luck drive no. 5)

And you know who also benefits??? Sony benefits. A trak has produced a song using a sample from Jose Gonzales which features in their first Bravia (Balls) ad. The track is called “Get em high remix” – check it out on A Trak's page

And hence my theory is proved: that the best way to get share of voice in 2008 is through PR worthy partnerships, with other PR worthy brands (including people). That’s because 2 amazing things is better than 1 amazing thing – and when a multimillion brand partners with a multi million selling artist and then commissions another successful artist etc... we see a lot of buzz and a lot of love…

Wooo I know, you can measure how much Buzz there is about a brand here, try it for Nike..

Ps... A Trak also won the DMC World DJ championships in 1997 (I read that here)