Nike's chief digital officer: Should the role exist?

Nike is accelerating its digital strategy and has hired Adam Sussman to take on the responsibility.Sussman, who is the brand’s first chief digital officer, will lead the team responsible for the development of “industry-leading digital products” and services across Nike.com, Nike+ and brand digital platforms. Sussman’s team will drive Nike’s consumer engagement and more importantly, Sussman will be an essential player in helping Nike attain its goal of reaching US$50 billion in revenue by the end of FY20.Nike, undoubtedly, has been lauded as one of the leading brands that marketers and agencies look up to. This is not just because of the brands immense creativity in products and promotions, but also its ability to embrace the world of digital. So this then begs the question, for a brand already so digitally savvy, does it really need yet another digital officer?(Read also: LVMH's senior hire signals need for top level digital experts)Tuomas Peltoniemi, president of TBWA’s Digital Arts Network (DAN) was of the view that sometimes large organisations find it hard to connect the dots in order to capitalise on the digital opportunities. While for Nike integrating digital across the various silos of marketing and product is not much of a problem, it makes sense for the brand to put someone in in place to connect the dots.Peltoniemi added: “In the future there will be more digital natives in all executive positions. For Nike it's more about staying at the top rather than catching up.”What's interesting, he said, is that this role sits under the brand team since Nike is generally used to innovating in the products space. Clearly competition in the sporting world is heating up.“A role such as this is to drive innovation for the brand rather than product, especially as emerging brands such as Under Armour catch up,” he added.A second go at wearables?Under Armour, as Peltoniemi rightly pointed out, has over the years made huge strides in areas such as Wearables and according to an article on Fortune, the brand has spent almost US$700 million on technology acquisitions to lead in this space. Wearables unfortunately, is an avenue Nike exited from in 2014 just before it became big.Neeraj Gulati, managing director – Ingenuity at IPG Mediabrands said that today almost all industries, and especially the product focused industries, are moving towards creating a custom experience for consumers and technology makes it happen at scale.“Nike was the leader in the wearable space with the Fuel band. But somehow after that one initiative it became apparent that they never had a proper road map or couldn’t focus enough to execute it,” said Gulati. Nonetheless, at the heart of the brand today is a data lab and this data helps create an experience which drives loyalty and purchase.“I believe Nike will soon be launching more and more wearable and opening access to the data they have just like Facebook did with Fconnect. With this new addition to the team they will focus strongly on creating an ecosystem built around the athlete’s data which goes way beyond Nike,”  Gulati added.Gulati’s views might most certainly become a reality given Trevor Edwards, president, Nike Brand, pointing out 2016 is going to be a big year for the brand. He added Sussman’s wealth of experience in digital, consumer technology and strategy leadership makes him the “perfect person to tackle tomorrow’s challenges today.”Sussman’s background too is a diversified one cutting across multiple positions in the interactive gaming and entertainment industries such as EA Mobile and Disney Interactive.“Sussman is just as passionate about solving a problem for one athlete as he is introducing that innovation to a global community. 2016 promises to be a big year for the world of Nike digital, and this is just the beginning,” Edwards added.