Challenge

As the athletic apparel category had grown, female runners had turned away from the adidas brand. Adidas North America challenged its team and partners to find a way to reinvent the brand to reestablish its notoriety with women runners and move the needle on innovation perceptions.

Inspiration

Our discovery process helped chart our course towards brand reinvention for female runners. We found that women were curating their wardrobes, inspired by both high and low culture.

They were also consuming fashion at a faster rate than in the past, while blurring the lines between workout clothing and everyday wear. With the dawn of the “athleisure” trend, each item was expected to serve multiple – and often widely ranging – purposes, from spinning class, to brunch with friends, and beyond.

Another defining truth as we conjured our female runner reboot: women were more influenced by other women than they were by brands.

Idea

Enter Avenue A, a quarterly subscription box for women runners, curated by women of true influence – and an adidas first. We recruited a diverse team of Curators who could help adidas be seen as culturally relevant and innovative by our audience, including Nicole Winhoffer (Madonna’s personal trainer), Morgan Brian (US soccer champion), and Rita Ora (singer/actress).

The pilot program relied on clever digital, social, and earned media to generate awareness. For each box, a Curator hand-picked premium items reflecting her personal energy and workout inspiration, then drove awareness across social by sharing photo and video content true to her personal brand while promoting her Avenue A box.

We developed a new eCommerce system for adidas, with contextual prompts to guide women through the buying process. Emails and eCRM kept subscribers informed about upcoming boxes, new products, and Avenue A news, all aimed at building a direct relationship with customers and keeping them loyal to the program.

Growth

Avenue A’s innovative and hyper-relevant approach brought women runners back into the adidas fold and fed further subscription programming from the brand.

The program learnings fuelled Adidas Global Membership Club launch.

The program won at the CMA’s a Silver, for Community Engagement & Digital and a Bronze for Community Engagement.

Black Screen with the words: Adidas Avenue A Cyber Web Campaign Durable Consumer Goods Case Film 6179
Young woman facing forward in black tank top and boxing gloved. Mirror behind her, reflecting her image.

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