Under Armour is tackling the world’s top sport with its first global football campaign – Slay Your Next Giant – featuring a team of young player ambassadors led by new Manchester United attacker Memphis Depay and creative built around laces carrying personal goals reflecting the brand’s current bid idea that an athlete’s journey is as important as their destination.
The campaign, leveraging themes of tenacity, persistence and drive, is being developed along with agency Droga5 and the creative focus for the launch phase is the players’ laces.
Under Armour is giving its football endorsers customised laces: each set is engraved with the current (achievable) personal goal that each player is working towards.
The campaign evolves as each time a player achieves that goal, UA sends them a new pair of laces with a new objective to work towards.
Goals include laces copy lines such as ‘Score In Front of 75,000 Fans’ and ‘?’.
Each set of laces acts as a kind of metaphor representing the next giant that the athlete is trying to slay in order to elevate their game.
Viewers are driven to the campaign’s digital hub at SlayYourNextGiant.com where they can learn more about each of the players in the campaign, watch videos of their stories and share their personal ‘giants’ by creating their own lace image for Facebook and Twitter.
The Memphis Depay digital story strand is led by an online film that ad promotes Under Armour’s CRM FG football boots (which Depay is wearing through the current season).
The ad, which opens with Depay and then inter-cuts with other young players fronting the UA initiative,
is also amplified across UA’s social channels (Facebook and Twitter) using the hashtags #SlayYourNextGiant #IWILL.
Expectations to beat. Giants to slay. #SlayYourNextGiant
See @Memphis’ story: http://t.co/o8yjYbWEPM pic.twitter.com/LNqBTCSVo2
— Under Armour (@UnderArmour) September 24, 2015
Memphis’ first set of laces carry the objective: ‘Score My First EPL Goal’ and the campaign launched the week he achieved that very objective.
The first of many for @Memphis. Giant slayed, on to the next. #SlayYourNextGiant
http://t.co/PUSPbfSP1Z pic.twitter.com/PFKNJvl7pY
— Under Armour (@UnderArmour) September 26, 2015
As each players in the campaign reaches the goal written on their laces (which Memphis did against Sunderland on 26 September), they will remove those laces and replace them with a new pair with a new goal.
This whole process and journey will be shared across social media.
‘This campaign feels very personal for me as I start my first Premier League season,’ comments Memphis.
‘I have a lot of giants to slay in the coming months, but I’m feeling more than ready to take on every obstacle and challenge that’s presented to me. It’s how I’ve always played and lived—it defines me on and off the pitch.’
Additional storylines follow a set of young endorsers from various countries and leagues who are all developing their talent on grass pitches, cement courts, and empty lots all over the world.
These include Cameron Carter-Vickers (17) of the Tottenham Hotspur Academy, Jermaine Jones of the MLS’ New England Revolution, to 14-year-old Brazilian Adriano , Oswaldo Alanis (9) and Jesus Corona of the Mexican National Team, and Gonzalo Fierro of Colo-Colo and 11-year-old Eduardo in Chile.
Each player’s story is linked by a universal campaign line that reflects the brand’s global football ethos: ‘You’re just getting started’.
It is intended that the ‘Slay Your Next Giant’ concept will inform all future Under Armour story-telling and marketing efforts for the global football category.
‘Whether you’re Memphis, an aspiring academy hopeful in Brazil, or a Chilean kid playing with your neighborhood team, the goals you set for yourself loom just as large in your head,’ explains Under Armour VP Global Brand and Sports Marketing Peter Murray.
‘We’re going to be with every player, every step of the way, bringing down every giant he or she faces. We’re making a statement, we’re standing by it, and we’re pushing forward in a big way with our global football category.’
Comment:
This evolving campaign offers a low latency approach to on-pitch action through the season.
It taps into an underdog mentality, which seems appropriate as Under Armour takes on the dominant football giants Adidas and Nike.
The choice of youngster places the endorsers at the start of Under Armour’s own football journey.
The choice of players mixes personal athlete ambassador deals (eg Memphis) with players from teams that Under Armour sponsors (eg Tottenham Hotspur and Brazil’s São Paulo) and reflects the underdog idea and youthful promise and potential.
It was back in February 2015 that UA signed up Dutch star Memphis Depay – who was then at PSV Eindhoven – in a multi-year partnership.
‘On and off the pitch I’m always ready for the next chapter in my life,’ said Memphis, Holland’s youngest ever World Cup Finals goalscorer.
‘I wanted Under Armour in my corner because they’ll help me elevate my game until I reach my dreams. I’m going to help Under Armour bring the impact they’ve had in American Football, Basketball and sport performance to football.’
In August, shortly after the attacker signed for Man Utd, he starred in his ‘Under Armour Interview’ online docu-film (part of the brand’s ongoing athlete ambassador interview series).
Links
Under Armour Slay Your Next Giant Website:
http://slayyournextgiant.com/?cid=SM|YouTube|Football|brand-o||SYNG|92215
Under Armour Website:
Under Armour YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/underarmour
Under Armour Twitter:
https://twitter.com/underarmour
@Underarmour
#SlayYourNextGiant
#IWILL
Droga5
