Join who?

As we approach the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, I think back to this day four years ago. Working at different companies, David, Todd and I were part of the team involved in launching the “Join Bode” campaign for downhill skier Bode Miller. Working with Wieden+Kennedy (where Todd was the producer for the project), the opening ceremonies were the debut of the Join Bode campaign. I sat in eager anticipation waiting for the first commercial, and when it aired I was thrilled that a project I helped concept, design and build was being promoted on network television.

What really resonated with me was the fact that the campaign wasn’t promoting a product per se (though I guess Bode could be seen as such), but a philosophy. Maybe I’m easily influenced by a strong, contrarian voice stating competition isn’t about what place you get but how you compete, doing your best, and pushing yourself to do better. I actually liked the concept of the campaign. (How often do people say that?) The broadcast spots also weren’t the end of the message, but an invitation to engage online (something the latest batch of Super Bowl spots could learn from).

I could wax nostalgic about the long hours and missed holidays to launch the project, but what really stands out, four years later, is how our interactions online have changed. Back then, the site allowed people to download videos for their iPod (it was right around the time that the first video iPods came out), and email videos to friends. If you watched 10 videos, you could put your own comment up as a leaf in the Bode Tree forest. With over 5,000 comments submitted (Todd had to approve each one), only a handful had to be rejected based on content… positive or negative, the tone of voice in the leaves was affected by watching Bode expound on his philosophy.

If we launched the site now, I’m sure there would be a Facebook tie-in and Facebook application. There’d be some kind of Twitter integration of Bode tweeting from the games, and a #joinbode hashtag to populate the tree leaves. There would be a Join Bode iPhone app that showed the videos and gave race/medal results. The thing is, none of this stuff existed four years ago. We built the site based off of how people were engaging online at the time (even being relatively forward thinking by allowing people to post their own comments).

If online engagement can change so dramatically over four years, imagine how it will change in the next four. Building a business model around a specific technology or communications channel is basically predetermining your business extinction. Evolution is a process of what works best and what is no longer relevant. Companies that focus on what you want to accomplish and why you want to accomplish it are much better geared to trying new things, to seeing communication and conversation as evolution, not an end point.

Here’s wishing Bode the best of luck in the 2010 Olympics, but also recognizing that it isn’t just about the medals. It’s also about the Olympic creed.

And I didn’t realize this at the time, but I must have been subliminally affected by my childhood viewing of the Schoolhouse Rock song “Figure 8″ from a design standpoint. Only realized this 3+ years after the site launched…