Made in the Shade with Oakley real-time Chile miner marketing coup

It has been estimated that more than a billion people worldwide witnessed part of the live broadcast of the 33 Chilean miners as they were rescued over the past two days.

That's over a billion people who also saw the Oakley sunglasses the miners were wearing as they emerged into the light.

Oakley donated the sunglasses that provided the miners with protection from ultraviolet light after been underground for months. The Oakley logo seen on each of the miners' stylish glasses is an fantastic example of Real-Time Marketing & PR in action.

According to a CNBC report, Oakley donated 35 pairs of the Radar model sunglasses with Black Iridium lenses in Path and Range lens shapes for the miners. The glasses have Oakley Plutonite lens material that filters out the UV rays. The sunglasses retail for $180.

No matter how you choose to measure, the benefits of such a marketing coup are certainly enormous. According to research done for CNBC by Front Row Analytics, just the worldwide television impact alone generated $41 million in equivalent advertising time for Oakley.

I explore the ideas of Real-Time Marketing & PR and share dozens of examples like this in my new book coming November 1, 2010. Download the prologue and first chapter for free with no registration required.

Hat tip to my friend Frank Strong at Vocus for alerting us to this story in real time.

Image credit – Marketplace from National Public Radio

Comments

[Frank Strong]

Awesome David! A very cool story and a better post! Cheers!

[Kevin]

David, you have trained us well. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the first couple of miners emerging from the capsule.

I just broke my sunglasses and will definitely be buying a pair of Oakleys this weekend.

[David Meerman Scott]

Frank - thanks for sharing this with me in real-time and for commenting on this in something like two minutes after I posted it. Real-time, man. Real-time.

Thanks Kevin! Glad to see you thinking this way. Do let me know when you achieve your own real-time success.

[Timwasher]

I love that even Graceland jumped into some real-time marketing: FT.com "Rescued Chilean miners strike gold" http://bit.ly/cDZVIw

[seehaikuhere]

Not just business, but artistic endeavor can be real-time, too. I made a haiku poem and an artwork based upon the rescue activities, and got quite a good responses from all over.

[glass baby bottles]

It was truly the prayers and hard work of devoted volunters who save the lives of the Chile miners.

[Tim Dempsey]

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

[Michelle Minch, Moving Mountains Design]

Whomever came up with the idea to provide Oakley sunglasses to the miners should be rewarded handsomely. What a great PR coup!

[Nick Altrup]

If there is a blogging content strategy I struggle with, it's the strategy focused on connecting what's in the news with my marketing blog.

This is a perfect example of how to do so.

I'm really looking forward to the new book. I've got it on pre-order through Amazon.

[Jen]

Hi there! I'm fairly new to this world and reading one of your books right now...the New Rules of Marketing & PR...loving it!

So I wonder with this situation...wouldn't the real coup be demonstrating generosity through a sincere interest in the rescue -- leading to the donation of the glasses? I confess that I wondered who made the glasses and figured this would rock for them. In terms of what connects them to their consumers/potential consumers, though, I'd think it was the generosity. How many people would buy from someone overtly trying to make money off of a near tragedy? Even if initially, it seems like the fallout when the word got out would be a PR nightmare.

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for all the great comments!

Nick - hope you enjoy. Book comes out very soon (Nov 1)

Jen -- it is ME who is talking this up (and some members of the media). As far as I know Oakley is not using this themselves as a platform to market their products. There is a huge difference. It seems completely genuine to me. They donated glasses and that's all. Others are talking it up.

[Charles Neville]

What isn't very realtime is that Oakley haven't updated the post on their Community site, last updated when the miners were still underground. http://www.oakley.com/community/posts/2534 - maybe they really are trying to be very low key, but I'd have expected a bit more news for their fans from them.

[David Meerman Scott]

Charles - I agree. They should acknowledge what they did in some simple way.

[Jen]

Thanks for the clarity!