Lululemon launched its debut women’s footwear marketing campaign, called ‘A Woman’s Foot’, depicts the imperfect and messy experience of running and celebrates the nuances of designing a shoe specifically for female runners: an enterprise which saw Lululemon scan 1.2 million women’s feet to develop the optimum shapes for its debut Blissfeel sneaker.
The core campaign ‘A Woman’s Foot’ content rolled out after the brand ran a countdown clock on its own website to notify when customers could begin making purchases and the athletic apparel company launched the campaign on 22 March (leveraging International Women’s Day) in order to promote its entry into footwear space and the creative forms a poetic ode to women’s feet.
The campaign is spearheaded by a 75-second anthem spot which dropped on 22 March and which depicts women of all ages and from all walks of life enjoying their own ‘running journeys’ and includes a female voiceover stating: “A woman’s no-it’s-not-a-smaller-version-of-a-man’s foot. Every woman’s foot deserves a shoe made for women first.”
The campaign was created by Droga5 New York – the shop which became Lululemon’s lead agency of record back in November 2020 – and it features animation and mixed media and a diverse cast of women to show that running isn’t just for serious long distance runners and marathoners, but is also an “imperfect, messy experience than spans exhilaration and exhaustion.”
The long version of the hero ‘Meet The Blissful Runing Shoe’ commercial spans digital video backed by shorter social clips, plus broadcast TV in Chicago, Houston and New York. It was supported by product-focused, out-of-home ads to further drive awareness and excitement around the new shoe amongst the brand’s loyal following.
Alongside a host of real female runners, the lead film also features some of the brand’s ambassadors – including Colleen Quigley, Kadeena Cox, Changning Zhang and Mirna Valerio – who each also appear in a series of short social films which dive deeper into each ambassador’s running story and nuances of their anatomy. Thus adding an additional layer of authentic layer of storytelling to the campaign to humanize Lululemon.
These are also supported by additional digital content including a ‘behind the design’ video.
The campaign also included a Snapchat Lens which enabled customers to try on the shoes in augmented reality: thus tying the through-the-line campaign strand to a mobile-focused commerce effort to rive purchase.
The content seeks to drive viewers online to the brand’s purchasing platform at https://shop.lululemon.com/story/foot…
According to the agency’s Group Creative Director Marybeth Ledesma, the team’s approach was to offer an alternative and more authentic vision than most ads on the ultra-competitive sport shoe category which typically feature seemingly perfect women running effortlessly in stylish gear with perfect makeup.
“The film shows different types of runners, different types of women at different stages of their life, and I thought that’s what makes it a little bit more human, a little bit more real and approachable,” Ledesma explained. “That’s why you see the film is a bit more poetic. It’s sometimes even a little bit flawed to show that a run isn’t perfect. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s invigorating. It really dove into each brand ambassador’s story about their lives. We had individual interviews with them about [their] running experience, [their] journey, and wove some of that into the voiceovers. We were really trying to capture the design and the creativity that went into making the shoe, and then capturing the feeling of the run that’s not only the visuals, but the sound design played a big part.”
The campaign was created for a marketing team at client Lululemon which included Chief Brand Officer Nikki Neuburger, SVP Global Brand Content Ravi Hampole, Creative Director (Copy) Jason Effmann, VP Global Brand Management Deborah Hyun, SVP Global Brand Experience Darin Rabb, Senior Director Global Brand Management Patrick Jeffers, Senior Director Brand Creative Damien Webb, Director Global Brand Marketing Crystal Rocabado, Manager Of Brand Production Meryl Rekert and Senior Project Manager (Brand) Alicia Garritty.
The agency team at Droga5 NY which worked on the project included Co-Chief Creative Officer Tim Gordon, Co-Chief Creative Officer Scott Bell, Group Creative Director Marybeth Ledesma, Creative Director Bastien Grisolet, Senior Copywriter Jenny Yoon, Senior Art Director Maria Kouninski, Executive Producers Film) Mike Hasinoff and Steve Ford, Senior Producer (Film) Mateo Suarez, Senior Music Supervisor Mike Ladman, Chief Brand Strategy Officer Harry Román-Torres, Group Strategy Director Cecilia Diaz, Strategy Director Justin Clagette, Senior Communications Strategist Cherish Lee, Data Strategy Director Joy McKenzie, Group Account Director Caitlin Patrick, Account Supervisor Michaela Derosa and Project Manager: Katie Shea.
‘A Woman’s Foot’ was shot in Mexico City and Shanghai by production company De La Revolución with Academy Award-nominated Director ophia Nahli Allison with support from Melina Matsoukas and cinematographers Michael ‘Cambio’ Fernandez and Stevo Sheng, plus Executive Producer Ali Brown, Producer Christopher Cho, with production service companies The Lift (Mexico) and Gung Ho Films (China).
Editorial was handled by Good Company, telecine by Color Collective, post production and VFX by Purple Martin Studio, plus music and sound by Ballad, stills by photographers Lisa Sorgini and Magda Wosinska and the illustrator was Tanya Griffiths.
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The footwear campaign dovetails with the themes in Lululemon’s ‘Feel’ campaign: its biggest global ad campaign which kicked off in August 2021 through an integrated brand creative platform designed to flex to fit an array of products.
At press time, three of the eight colourways in the Blissfeel range were already sold out.
Lululemon had been planning and prepping to enter the fiercely competitive footwear space for several years and the move into the space puts it more into direct competition with the big beats of the sportswear space such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour.
Following the Blissfeel sneaker range, Lululemon plans to add a cross-training shoe and post-workout slider during summer 2022 and a training shoe in autumn 2022.
Like most of its previous apparel products, the brand’s sneakers are primarily based on research around how women uniquely move.
“Footwear is the natural next step for us to expand and apply our long history of innovation in fit, feel and performance, and it represents an exciting moment for our brand,” explained CEO Calvin McDonald. “We are entering the footwear category the same way we built our apparel business — with products designed to solve unmet needs, made for women first.”
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