New Balance To Center Brand Campaign Around Running
New Balance Thursday will launch a brand campaign highlighting running as fundamental to sports and spotlighting runners' love/hate relationship with the sport. The TV, print and online campaign, via BBDO, N.Y., targets athletes in the 18-29 demo, and the tag line reads "LOVE/hate. this is the new balance." The campaign targets three consumers -- the dedicated runner, the fitness runner and the competitive athlete -- and highlights New Balance's expansion into team sports including football and baseball. The TV campaign, which includes five spots, breaks Thursday on CBS' NCAA men's basketball tournament coverage and will have heavy emphasis in March-May and again in August-September on Fox, ESPN and other cable nets. The cornerstone of the campaign is the "Anthem" spot, which introduces the love/hate relationship with running (New Balance). SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Jon Show reports with the campaign, the company's first since moving its ad account to BBDO from Boathouse Media, Boston, New Balance "seeks to further expand its customer base outside of hard-core runners by targeting a younger demographic." Print ads will appear in running publications and ESPN The Magazine, and online buys include ESPN.com, SI.com and CBSSports.com (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/24 issue).
LARGER PLAN: In Boston, Chris Reidy reported the campaign is "part of a larger plan to nearly double [New Balance's] athletic shoe and apparel sales, in part by increasing the company's spending on marketing" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/22). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Stephanie Kang reported New Balance is "tripling its ad budget and doubling its budget for things like consumer research." But even with the increase, the company will be "spending a fraction of what its competitors devote to marketing." TNS Media Intelligence calculated that the company in '07 spent $19.7M on advertising, while competitors Nike and adidas spent $184M and $79.9M, respectively. The focus on advertising, combined with "better product development," is part of a New Balance plan to "triple its revenue to $3[B] by 2012." New Balance CEO Robert DeMartini is "trimming the company's product line by 20% and focusing design and development money on the company's most popular products, mainly running shoes." New Balance also is "expanding its apparel line and building its presence in markets such as China, Japan and Brazil." Kang wrote: "Can a company that built a following through low-key marketing ramp up its promotional engine without alienating loyalists?" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/21).
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