Performance and technology will be the big issues for athletic shoes in '98.
PERFORMANCE, SHOE TECH TAKE AD STAGE FOR '98/ ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR
MARKETERS NOTE MISDEEDS OF SOME SPORTS STARS
January 16, 1998
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Advertising Age : With consumers fed up with the bad-boy behavior of pro athletes, technology and performance-not cocky superstars-are taking center stage in athletic footwear branding campaigns in 1998.
By no means are the likes of Nike, Reebok International and Fila USA abandoning athletes, who are still needed to validate performance positionings. But many are rethinking how athletes are depicted in ads and moving away from the bombast that characterized past marketing campaigns in favor of lower-key approaches.
CONSUMER DISMAY
Last month, Nike CEO Phil Knight blamed an oversaturation of signature products and consumer dismay about athletes' antics for sluggish sales industrywide of basketball and cross-training shoes, the biggest segments.
''I think there's been negative baggage pulling down the sports world,'' said Chris Zimmerman, Nike's U.S. ad director. ''We're not questioning the power of athletes, but the model. We have to find fresher ways to tell stories about athletes.''
Nike's athletic endorsers range from good guy Michael Jordan to the hot- tempered Charles Barkley.
Much of the ''negative baggage'' piled up in 1997 alone, including Mr. Barkley's and Allen Iverson's legal troubles; Latrell Sprewell's alleged assault of his coach; and sportscaster Marv Albert's sexcapades. Problems even slopped over into college sports, with gambling scandals at Arizona State University.
The backlash against traditional sports has seeded a market for alternative brands. Now, with a fashion shift from athletic to casual, some of these smaller brands are plotting their biggest attacks ever.
New Balance, long known for its ''endorsed by no one'' stance, is tripling its ad budget to $18 million to launch in March its everyman-centered ''Achieve New Balance'' campaign into prime time-a first for the brand. Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York, handles.
''Constantly promoting performance has sometimes been an Achilles' heel for us,'' said Paul Heffernan, New Balance VP-marketing. ''But after seeing brands rise and fall on fashion . . . we're starting to see things come around.''
AIRWALK TRIPLES TV BUDGET
Airwalk, which straddles fashion and performance with products grounded in alternative pop culture and extreme sports, is tripling its U.S. TV budget. A fall '98 branding push will for the first time unify both sides of its personality in one campaign. Lambesis, Del Mar, Calif.,
handles.
When trends shift, ''billions of dollars are at risk,'' said Greg Woodman, Airwalk VP-marketing. ''We really consider our brand to be the best positioned to exploit this whole attitude adjustment from what it was to what it's going to be.''
Puma is banking on the backlash to grow its stature among hip youth. The marketer will launch its biggest U.S. push ever this summer, part of a global campaign timed to World Cup '98. Gyro Worldwide, Philadelphia, handles.
''This year, you'll see the major sports brands move to a performance story, less hype, more substance,'' said Steven Grasse, Gyro president.
Nike, the industry leader, began that move in earnest earlier this month. Its ''I can'' campaign will encompass messages about athletes, products, new technologies and community involvement, depicting athletes-professional and everyday-on a more human scale.
Conceived by Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., ''I can'' was created with the current sports climate in mind.
While executives at Reebok and Fila don't buy into Nike's gloomy assessment of the sports climate, their 1998 strategies will affect how they use athletes.
Reebok, whose endorsers include Mr. Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal, believes it has been moving away from the deified-athletic-endorser model for the past year. The marketer has said it will not renew deals with many of its second- or third- tier endorsers-athletes used in local marketing or who merely wear the product during games.
LINK ATHLETES WITH TECH
''We need to do a better job with what we have,'' a spokesman said. ''We have to more effectively and more powerfully link our athletes to our technologies.''
Reebok's lead agency is The Heat, a division of Heater Advertising, Boston.
Fila also will use its athletes to promote a performance and technology story in '98 advertising, a significant about-face. The company traded on its Italian fashion heritage and the celebrity of NBA star Grant Hill to boost its brand to No. 3 in the industry, but is now faltering. The agency is Arnell Group Brand Consulting, New York.
No. 3 marketer Adidas, best positioned to challenge Nike and Reebok's dominance, is sticking with low-profile ads that communicate its Feet You Wear design technology. Leagas Delaney, London and San Francisco, handles.
Not all are completely conforming to industry trends. Converse, which quickly dropped Mr. Sprewell after the tussle with his coach, is still relying heavily on NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman. Arnold Communications, Boston, handles. Converse this week will announce details of its new branding campaign, whose tagline is ''Stay true'' and employs Mr. Rodman.
<<Advertising Age -- 01-12-98, p. 3>>
[Copyright 1998, Crain Communications] |
