Nike’s first content subscription business
NTC Premium
Problem
The Nike Training Club App was not a revenue generating business model and thus was not a clear value-add to the Nike membership portfolio.
Hypotheses
If we add a paid component to the app, through a subset of content this is subscription based, this will turn the app into a revenue generating product and increase the gross margin for the company. Additionally, members will find added value through the in-depth and high-value content, resulting in a higher retention rate.
The Team
This was a massive undertaking that spanned across multiple categories and teams, including Digital Product, Brand Marketing, Performance COE, Sports Marketing, Portfolio Management, Program Management, the CMS team, Procurement, Legal, Analytics, and Finance.
At the heart of this initiative was the core NTC team:
Product Managers
iOS & Android Engineers
Product & Content Designers
Program & Scrum Managers
Localization Managers
Content Production & Operations Manager (my role)
Performance & Talent Director
Technical Authors
Solution Discovery
Competitive Landscape: we looked deeply at what our competitors were doing, how they were approaching a monetized content strategy, and what our disruptive factors needed to be successful in this space - we landed on 2 key distinguishers:
Our global community and brand reach, specifically within already established membership basis.
Our authenticity in the space of sport, via our global network master trainers and influencers.
It all started with a good ‘ol whiteboard session, and grew into a full fledged product
Through extensive consumer research, vendor RPF processing, internal and external low-fidelity concept testing (i.e. wireframes and interviews), and identification of MVP training types (quantitative member sentiment and market research), we landed on a north star vision.
To create an in-app experience, that delivers value to our members through entrainment, educational, and movement instruction; spanning all 5-facets of performance - training, recover, nutrition, mindfulness and sleep - delivered through the through the voice of our authentic Nike Master Trainers.
To generate the extensive volume of content we needed for launch, we went to work building a content team, who’s mission was to rapidly prototype the process of creating and producing the P1 content, and turn it into a fully fledged in-house studio operation.
Workout prototype with Betina Gozo
Location: Nike World HQ
Crew Size: 10
Video Expert Tip with Ryan Flaherty
Location: Coach K Athletic Building
Crew Size: 10
Content Production
Sample Prototypes
BTS
In 2019 we launched in the US with 4x wholistic programs, ranging from 4-6 weeks in length, comprised of over 100 unique workouts, over 100 editorial expert tips, and personalized motivational videos from our hero Master Trainers.
Within the first 6 months of launching the experience we generated over $1 million dollars in revenue for the company.
Since launch we added 6x more programs, including community challenges, kids focused programs, yoga & outcome specific programs, integrations with the Nike Trained Podcast and Brand Marketing Editorial teams, added content partnerships with Lifesum and Headspace, and scaled to Canada and the UK.
Outcome
Editorial Expert Tips
Contribution
Lead Trainer selection, contract negotiation and on-boarding.
Lead vendor RFPs, negotiation, contracting, and life-cycle management
Lead internal cross-org collaboration on marketing, apparel & locations.
Lead external partnerships for additional content, including Headspace, Lifesum, and the Performance Council representatives.
Lead asset management, metadata definition, post-production and content authoring teams.
Executive Producer for ALL MVP & post-launch content, including owning the P&L for content production, hiring internal team members and securing funding.
CMS Development
Problem
The original AEM CMS, developed to support the NTC 5.0 content, would not support the new content types, the authoring needs, or the channel delivery strategy that was need to power the new NTC Premium business model.
Hypotheses
If we expanded the capabilities of the ‘One Nike’ CMS, to be able to ingest, store, and deliver these new content types, it would allow for a seamless delivery of the product and allow for greater geo-scale down the road.
Contribution
As the lead content production manager and owner of asset metadata creation, asset delivery, and the publishing calendar, it was natural that I took on the lead as product manager in developing the CMS needed to support the NTC Premium business model. In deep collaboration with our NTC & NRC engineering leads, along with our shared services platform team, and the ‘One Nike’ CMS team, we undertook the parallel feature development of the new CMS. Specifically I contributed to:
Writing product spec requirements for front end development
Collaborating on asset deliver strategies, using AWS services
User Acceptance testing
User playbook creation and author on-boarding
Project management of all content authoring
In order to bring our stories to life, we not only needed to evolve our content strategy, but also the technology used to deliver the experience to our members - we needed a new content management system.
Outcome
Successfully delivered a new CMS and all content authored and tested, for the launch of NTC Premium.
As part of our continuous development cycles, one of the key experiments we executed was A/B testing to modified the paywall, with the goal of increasing our conversion to trial rates. For 1 month we changed the default screen from a monthly pay option to a yearly option, and by doing so observed a lift of +256.05% in the click-thru button upon entry to the Apple purchase flow. Additionally the “Learn More” button also experienced a significant lift in click throughs.
Overall there was a lift in tapping on the the paywall CTAs, indicating a much more engaged expereince for users that were. considering upgrading from their trials. Users on the modified paywall showed more likely to learn more about NTC Premium.
Continuous App Development
