On 18 March Puma unveiled a new campaign promoting its fresh partnership with suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) introducing a joint initiative tackling the stigma around mental health.
The initiative, which is linked to Puma’s recent return to the running category, sees the pair set out to both raise funds and generate awareness of CALM’s services which is led by an initial content series backed by a mass participation virtual event and a new apparel collection.
The CALM x Puma ‘Spark Change’ content series is based around the stories of Vikki, Stephen and Michael – three members of the CALM community who use the power of running to invigorate and lift their mind and body, helping audiences to ‘be the change they want to see in the world’.
The series is supported by the virtual event which will take place during Mental Health Awareness Week ’10 to 16 May 2021).
The virtual run sees a team of Puma athlete endorsers – including Hannah Williams, Jodie Williams and Imani-Lara Lansiquot – front a participatory virtual run and feature in a campaign which aims to encourage others to sign-up and join them and see £5 of their £25 registration fee donated to CALM.
The ‘Puma x CALM Spark Change Run’ sets out to ‘start a revolution’ and urges runners to ‘forget PBs and running a million miles and set yourself a challenge that sparks change’.
The challenge and mechanic are simple: runners choose when, where and how long you want to run (from 1km to a marathon and from the treadmill to the track and trail) and then create the run, sign up for £25 and log the route of the run that works for them on the microsite.
In return, the Spark Change Run’ offers a goodie bag including top notch snacks to keep you fueled, a Puma X CALM Spark Change Run t-shirt, a PumaX CALM Spark Change medal and a place on virtual leader board
Backing both strands of the project, a new Puma Running apparel collection will launch in Autumn 2021 with all proceeds from the capsule collection being donated to CALM.
Comment:
This is another example of a sports brand activating around the mental wellbeing benefits of running – an issue which has come to the forefront during the pandemic and its associated lockdowns where running has spiked and many runners cite its mental health benefits as well as its physical ones as being the reason behind particpating. Other notable example in the sportswear brand space include Asics’s #SunriseMind and Brooks Running’s ‘Runfulness Project’.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.