????拜訪耐克（Nike）總部的人中，很少有人去過杰里?萊絲大廈（the Jerry Rice Building）的三樓。占地192英畝的耐克總部位于俄勒岡州比弗頓市，而這棟樓位于總部園區的北端。就算是耐克公司自己的員工，大多數人對這棟樓里的工作人員到底在做什么也知之甚少。樓的大門上有塊牌子，上面寫著“禁區：我們聽到您在敲門，但我們不能讓您進來”，這句話并不完全是玩笑。樓里，員工們五六成群，聚在各個會議室中，會議室的白板上寫滿了各種方程式。他們之中高人輩出，既有工程師，也有科學家，他們或來自麻省理工學院（MIT），或來自蘋果公司（Apple）。樓里戒備森嚴，嚴禁泄密：如果某位訪客獲準進入，而他在參觀時盯著電腦屏幕的時間稍長，馬上就會有位公關專員跳出來擋住他的視線。

????如此嚴格的保密方案和特別通道安全監察一度只是尖端跑鞋技術才能享有的待遇：比如說發現了一種新型的泡沫吹制聚氨酯，或是在緩沖墊技術上取得了其他突破。但是，我們說的這個實驗室里的員工并不是在制造鞋子、衣服。他們正不動聲色地發動一場營銷革命。

????這棟樓是“耐克數碼運動”（Nike Digital Sport）所在地。它是耐克公司于2010年新設立的部門。在某個層面上，該部門的目標是研發各種設備和技術，幫助用戶在參加體育運動的時候監測個人相關的統計數據。該部門最廣為人知的產品是Nike+跑步傳感器。這款與蘋果公司聯合研發的產品可以監測慢跑者在運動中的表現，甫一面市就受到熱捧?，F在，共有500萬人借助這個工具查看自己的運動狀態。上個月，“數碼運動”部推出了首款重量級后續產品——監測能量輸出“燃料腕帶”（FuelBand）。

????但是，數碼運動部的工作絕不僅限于研發熱門運動小裝備。這個部門聚集著當今世界最出類拔萃的營銷人員，他們一手掌握著耐克消費者的各項數據，占據得天獨厚的優勢，有望利用這些數據追蹤消費者，創建在線社區，從而與消費者建立前所未有的牢固關系。耐克制定了龐大的計劃，準備將其大部分營銷活動轉向數字領域，而這就是其中的一部分。自從“just do it”這句廣告語誕生、甚至是那位波特蘭州立大學（Portland State University）的平面設計系學生在紙面上畫出耐克的對勾標識Swoosh（意為“嗖的一聲”——譯注）以來，耐克總部迎來了最重大的轉變。

????Few outsiders have visited the third floor of the Jerry Rice Building at Nike's headquarters. Even most Nike employees know little about just what the staffers working here, on the north side of the company's 192-acre campus in Beaverton, Ore., actually do. A sign on the main entrance reads RESTRICTED AREA: WE HEAR YOU KNOCKING, WE CAN'T LET YOU IN, and it's only partly in jest. Inside, clusters of five or six employees huddle in side conference rooms where equations cover whiteboard walls. There are engineers and scientists with pedigrees from MIT and Apple. Leaks are tightly controlled; a public relations man jumps in front of a visitor who gazes at the computer screens for a little too long.

????Once upon a time, the hush-hush plans and special-access security clearance would have been about some cutting-edge sneaker technology: the discovery of a new kind of foam-blown polyurethane, say, or some other breakthrough in cushioning science. But the employees in this lab aren't making shoes or clothes. They're quietly engineering a revolution in marketing.

????This hive is the home of Nike Digital Sport, a new division the company launched in 2010. On one level, it aims to develop devices and technologies that allow users to track their personal statistics in any sport in which they participate. Its best-known product is the Nike+ running sensor, the blockbuster performance-tracking tool developed with Apple (AAPL). Some 5 million runners now log on to Nike (NKE) to check their performance. Last month Digital Sport released its first major follow-up product, a wristband that tracks energy output called the FuelBand.

????But Digital Sport is not just about creating must-have sports gadgets. Getting so close to its consumers' data holds exceptional promise for one of the world's greatest marketers: It means it can follow them, build an online community for them, and forge a tighter relationship with them than ever before. It's part of a bigger, broader effort to shift the bulk of Nike's marketing efforts into the digital realm -- and it marks the biggest change in Beaverton since the creation of just do it, or even since a graphic design student at Portland State University put pen to paper and created the Swoosh.