Under Armour: Michael Phelps

Source: Cannes Creative Lions, Shortlisted, Creative Effectiveness Lions,

2017
Downloaded from WARC

This case study explains how sports clothing brand Under Armour worked with swimmer Michael
Phelps to produce an emotional video and increase sales in the US.

Under Armour wanted to use its association with swimmer Michael Phelps as he was competing in
his final Olympic Games to boost sales - but due to Olympics rules it couldn't mention the Games.
Instead of following the usual Olympic ad routine of celebrating the athlete's success, Under
Armour focused on Phelps' sacrifice and gruelling training regime.
A TV ad showed Phelps' solitary training programme and the sacrifices that built his success, and
a YouTube video featured Phelps' and his fiancée's emotional reaction when they saw the film for
the first time.

Advertiser: Under Armour

Agency: Droga5
Country: USA

Objectives
BACKGROUND: THE G.O.A.T.'S SWAN SONG

Michael Phelps and Under Armour were, in a sense, born at the same moment. The performance apparel,
footwear and accessories brand was founded in Baltimore in 1996. That same year, Phelps, an 11-year-old kid
from the Baltimore suburbs, began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

Over the next 20 years, Under Armour grew from scrappy underdog to number two in sports apparel, second
only to Nike1. And Phelps went on to become the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time)—the most decorated Olympian
in the history of the games and one of the most celebrated athletes ever.

Under Armour first sponsored Phelps in 2010, and in 2016 he would once again be its star Olympic athlete.
Phelps had already won 22 medals, a staggering 18 of them gold, and the 2016 Rio Games were to be his last
Olympics, his swan song, and a crowning finale to an unprecedented career. This created a never-to-be-
repeated opportunity to celebrate our star athlete and elevate our brand. The hope was that he would trigger
what's called the "Olympic boost"—the perception lift a brand receives in consumers' minds after its athletes do
well at the Games—as well as, ultimately, a sales increase2.

THE OPPORTUNITY: ASSERT OUR ATTITUDE, CHALLENGE OUR OPPONENT

Even at number two, Under Armour remained an underdog brand, a plucky blue-collar fighter from the
unforgiving East Coast city of Baltimore with a challenger attitude. The brand is outspent by competitors,
including Nike, the 800-pound gorilla of the category, at every turn. But what Under Armour may lack in size or
budget, the brand makes up for through a strong work ethic and a warrior spirit. The 2016 Summer Olympics
was the perfect opportunity to tell the brand's story and Phelps's story, as well as pull one over on Under
Armour's illustrious West Coast rival.

CHALLENGE 1: LOCKED OUT OF THE GAMES

There was one key problem. Under Armour was not an Olympic sponsor. While Under Armour was second
behind Nike, they were not a close second3, and Under Armour would not be pursuing a $25M+4 Olympic
sponsorship like its competitors. And, if you're not a sponsor, you can't use the Olympic rings or mention "2016,"
"Rio," "Games" and "gold." Non-sponsor brands are not even allowed to tweet "Good luck at the Olympics" to
their qualifying athletes. What's more, ad campaigns needed to be in-market by March 27—relatively speaking,
eons before the actual Games and well before most viewers had begun thinking about the them.

CHALLENGE 2: A SCRUM OF SPONSORS

Needless to say, the 2016 Olympics would be one of the most cluttered advertising environments of all time.
Well over 400 brands5 would spend north of a billion dollars6 in and around the Rio Olympics in the United
States alone, giving Under Armour a less than 0.1% share (ad dollars) of the Olympic voice.

Being a highly awarded athlete makes Phelps a magnet for sponsors. He's endorsed Visa, Omega watches,
Subway, Kellogg's, Louis Vuitton, Procter & Gamble, Hilton Hotels, HP, PowerBar and Head and Shoulders,
among others7. And every single sponsor sought to capitalize on its investment with heroic ads celebrating
Phelps's achievements, ultimately cementing the Phelps brand as much as its own. How could Under Armour
stand out rather than blend in?

THE TASK

Use the greatest Olympian of all time to build the Under Armour brand and business before, during
and after the Olympics, without mentioning the Olympics.

OBJECTIVES

Under Armour's budget for its Phelps Olympic campaign was modest compared to the estimated $1.2 billion
spent by advertisers around the Olympics8. To make an impact far larger than our <0.1% share of voice,9 we'd
have to generate outside buzz and translate it into consideration and sales. We would benchmark against other
major Olympic sponsors, like Nike.

Communications objective: Create brand buzz

Put Michael Phelps and Under Armour on top of the conversation ahead of and during the Olympics. We would
achieve this by getting people to talk about the brand and share content through social channels and in earned
media.

Marketing objective: Lift brand consideration versus Nike during the Olympics

To drive increased sales, we would have to translate buzz into increased consideration of our brand. Nike is an
established Olympic sponsor with a large stable of athletes and significant advertising presence. We would
measure the two brands' consideration during the Olympics versus their July averages and lifts (if any).

Commercial objective: Increase sales

Our ultimate goal was to increase sales of Under Armour's men's training apparel (its biggest category by far)
with the launch of the campaign in March and during and just after the Games. We would measure this by
looking at year-over-year sales growth across all retail channels.

Strategy
Beyond the clichés

Sponsored-athlete advertising tends to follow a standard formula—athletes' winning moments, fists raised in
glory, triumphant ascension to the podium, a roaring crowd, followed by a cut to the sponsor logo and tagline—
all in the hope that the brand will catch a bit of reflected glory. If we were to go this route, we would blend right
into the Olympic clutter.

This kind of approach would have also been directly at odds with what the brand stands for. The Under Armour
brand is built on a powerful insight about what drives athletes. Its "Rule Yourself" campaign has brought to life
the brand's ethos of relentlessly competing against yourself, not others—not for glory, but to exceed your own
goals.

This created a strategic challenge: how could we bring Under Armour's self-focused, glory-averse
ethos to life using one of the most acclaimed and celebrated athletes on the planet?

The dark side of glory: Sacrifice

We have always treated Phelps not as a star or mascot for a campaign but as a partner and collaborator.
Looking for the answer, we talked to the man himself. And in long, deeply revealing conversations with him, we
uncovered a different side to his Olympic glory: a dark, unglamorous side that nobody talked about.

Every moment Michael Phelps had spent in the spotlight was the result of months and years of grueling work.
His training routine was brutal and relentless, with six hours of swimming a day, six days a week, paired with
lifting heavy weights every other day.

But it was much more than just training. It was about being disciplined in every single aspect of his life, including
how he ate, slept and recovered. It was literally 24/7: every single moment of every single day followed a
relentless regimen ordinary humans cannot begin to imagine. There was almost no time for doing the everyday
things we take for granted, such as socializing, relaxing, having fun. With the four-year gap between Olympics,
swimming's lack of mainstream coverage and its solitary nature, Phelps had been living for the most part in
prolonged training exile, hidden and alone.
Still, Phelps understood that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a joy of missing out (JOMO). By making
sacrifices, he had been preparing for the ultimate endgame—Olympic glory. It was an amazing story of hard
work, fierce determination and extreme sacrifice for almost every hour of every day. And no one knew this
sacrifice like Phelps, coming back for a record fifth Olympics.

A shared obsession: Consistency

We knew this insight would resonate with our core audience of dedicated and driven athletes. They are
motivated to improve their personal best and know that they have to work incredibly hard to get to the next level.
They know that "use it or lose it" is never more true than when it comes to training: if you don't train consistently,
the gains you make are lost within a few days10.

While our audience lives in a world that fetishizes overnight success, from start-up billionaires to celebrities

famous simply for being famous, consistency is the value they seek to emulate most. The athletes and icons
they admire go beyond their first hit to continually deliver excellence. Their mindset is "keeping it is the new
getting it." They seek inspiration not to get going but to keep going11.

THE INSIGHT
An athlete's greatness is fueled by their sacrifices.

THE STRATEGY
Shine a spotlight on sacrifice—not glory, victory or medals—to bring to life Under Armour's point of view on
athletic achievement.

Creative approach
THE IDEA: IT'S WHAT YOU DO IN THE DARK THAT PUTS YOU IN THE LIGHT

Creative idea: "Own" Michael Phelps's final Olympics by bringing to life his incredible training regimen,
reflecting Under Armour's brand ethos of "Rule Yourself."

Media approach: Outflank our rivals with an early impact moment, then continue to drive conversation during
the games—from the outside.

PHASE 1 (March 2016)

We needed to abide by the IOC's rules and launch prior to March 27.

The work (TV, cinema and online film)

Our haunting TV/cinema ad and online film launched on March 8, 2016, and told Michael Phelps's authentic
training story far away from the spotlight of the Olympics. We portrayed the endless hours in the pool, brutal
sessions in the gym, active recovery, including unusual and painful methods such as cupping therapy and ice
baths in hyperbaric tanks, his taskmaster of a coach and the huge meals required to restore energy—all just so
he can go and do it all again. No roaring crowds, no podia, no medals.

We celebrated the physical and mental fortitude that such an extreme endeavor requires in a brutally honest,
poetic and occasionally surreal way, showing Phelps looking bearded and scruffy. This was not your average
Olympic endorsement ad. It ultimately became a timeless piece of storytelling about the power of the human
spirit. And layering it in the context of the Olympics took it to the next level.

The launch (PR and events)

To harness the excitement of the Olympics on this enforced early launch, we identified the biggest upswing in
interest before the games. The NBC press event in March marks the beginning of a three-month-long ramp-up,
with programming celebrating athletes and fueling America's medal hopes. We created our own global press
event with Phelps in Baltimore just a few days before launching the TV ad and online film.

Amplifying the emotion (YouTube, PR)

We showed a rough cut of the film to Michael Phelps and his fiancée, Nicole Johnson. We knew the emotional
resonance of the ad would hit home for the couple, so we were on hand to capture their reaction. Phelps and
Nicole both broke down in tears upon seeing his story; at last, someone wasn't just focusing on the glory but on
the journey of getting there, with all the incredible hard work it requires. We put the reaction film on YouTube,
and it was picked up by the press, creating a viral hit that amplified the main film without any kind of paid-media
support.

PHASE 2 (August 2016 - The Games)

Fuel the conversation (social, tactical TV)

Phelps's final Games were triumphant and saw him winning five golds and a silver 16 years into his career, at
the ripe old age of 31. During the Games, we were prohibited from using phrases and images such as
"Olympics" or the interlocking rings logo. As Phelps blew away the field and picked up medals, we leveraged his
success in social media by combining timely marketing messages with obvious signifiers, like American flags and
celebratory emojis. In addition, we put part of our budget aside to do tactical TV bursts at key athlete moments
with partners such as SportsCenter and keep ourselves in the conversation.
Other factors
Phelps was part of a brand campaign that also included TV spots and online films featuring members of the U.S.
Gymnastics Women's National Team and the Dutch soccer player Memphis Depay. However, as these efforts
didn't receive the ad dollars, media support or press pickup of Phelps, we don't consider their impact on results
significant.

While the stock-price surge was specific to the Olympics period, the third quarter was also buoyed by strong
demand for UA's shoes in the running category, three new e-commerce sites launched globally and UA
basketball star Stephen Curry's tour of China, among other factors. However, with men's training being UA's
biggest category—as well as a key growth category—and with 85% of its sales being in North America, its
Olympic success, with the training regimen of an American athlete at its core, was cited as a key factor for the
brand's surge during that period12.

Learnings
WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY
Under Armour wasn't even supposed to be in the Olympics race. But through creativity and willpower, we found
a way to circumnavigate the draconian rules set down by the IOC and make our presence felt. By creating a
story about an athlete's lead-up to the Games, not the Games itself, our communications could be in-market
months before everyone else and meaningfully so.

SOMETIMES OUTGUNNED, NEVER OUTTHOUGHT

There are literally thousands of brands that want a piece of Olympic glory. And many of them had far more
firepower than us in terms of media dollars and official rights. Yet we proved that razor-sharp insights and fierce
creativity can create an emotional and cultural moment that will drive value far beyond the media buy.

USE INFLUENCERS TO BUILD YOUR BRAND, NOT THEIRS

It would have been easy for us to bask in the reflected glory of Phelps's Olympic achievements, but we would
have been wallpaper, the same as everyone else. We found a way to marry an insight about Phelps with the
POV of the brand to tell a story altogether more distinctive and meaningful.

Entry Composition

Footnotes
1. Source: The Wall Street Journal , 8/1/15
2. Source: USA Today, 8/5/16
3. Source: The Motley Fool, 1/1/16
4. Source: SportsBusiness Daily, 4/2/12
5. Source: Media Radar/Adweek, 9/15/16
6. Source: NBC/Advertising Age, 8/4/16
7. Source: Heavy.com, 8/16/16
8. Source: NBC/Advertising Age, 8/4/16
9. Source: NBC/Advertising Age, 8/4/16
10. Source: The New York Times, 2/5/12
11. Source: Under Armour, Consumer Focus Groups, 1/5/15
12. Source: The Drum, Under Armour's Kevin Plank reveals how much the Olympics has boosted the brand,
8/17/16
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