Platform Reinforces Brand’s Performance Sport Strengths and Relentless Drive To Innovate and Improve As Well As Inspire Athletes
BOSTON, July 1, 2015 – Global athletic leader New Balance debuts a bold new brand platform today - Always in Beta - the brand’s promise to relentlessly improve, to never stop pushing and to always strive for more. At the same time, the brand highlights its focus on inspiring athletes around the world, both professional and every day, to reach for and achieve their goals, and then reset them towards even greater athletic accomplishments.
”Always in Beta is true to New Balance’s 100+-year old brand, our performance-based heritage and our core values,” says Rob DeMartini, President and CEO at New Balance. “It highlights our commitment to not rest on past successes, but be dedicated in our focus to continually push forward, to improve and aggressively deliver our best.”
Always in Beta highlights the brand’s goal to design and manufacture products that improve upon yesterday and to rally athletes everywhere to achieve, and then reset their own goals.
The platform’s marketing campaign is a concerted and passionate effort to engage with consumers and athletes around the world, showcasing New Balance’s complete range of footwear, apparel and accessories for a variety of athletic activities.
The cornerstone of the campaign is the “Storm” brand television commercial that represents the unrelenting desire to keep moving forward, to evolve and to progress. Filmed across three continents over four weeks, it follows the story of a woman on a run who reaches her limit. Unable to keep going, she digs deep, and with the help of a few hundred athletes – both professional and amateur - she finds the motivation to push forward.
The “Storm” video features 17 of the brand’s sponsored global professional athletes across the sports of running, baseball, tennis, football/soccer and triathlon. Faces of the campaign include Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Milos Raonic, Aaron Ramsey, Vincent Kompany and Sebastian Kienle, among others. An online “Beta Hub” experience at newbalance.com/beta invites consumers to immerse themselves in all things Beta with stories featuring the brand’s athletes and product innovations. In addition, the campaign also includes in-store, digital, and print advertising.
“At New Balance, we know the meaning of always pushing forward because we are always working to innovate our products and initiatives that serve and inspire our global athletes,” says Hilary Keates, Director, Global Marketing and Brand Management. “This is the mindset we share with our athletes and that is reflected in our Always in Beta platform.”
The campaign highlights key global product introductions – Vazee running footwear and the Made for Movement apparel collection. It is also timed around the launch of the brand’s inaugural football/soccer footwear line and its 4040v3 baseball shoe.
Since 2010, the brand has nearly doubled its sales globally, sponsored high-caliber athletes around the world, and entered the global football market.
US Campaign Specifics:
The television campaign breaks in the U.S. on July 6th exclusively on ESPN and will add high profile cable and network programming targeting 18-34 year olds for the September-October timeframe.
New Balance targets sports and health/fitness consumers through digital initiatives with ESPN, YouTube, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, Dead Spin and Pop Sugar. The print campaign appears in running and health/fitness magazines starting in August issues including Runner’s World, Running Times, Women’s Running, Competitor, and Outside.
The brand campaign creative was developed by Arnold Worldwide of Boston, MA who was named New Balance’s global creative agency of record in June 2010. PGR of Boston handled media buying and planning, while Arnold and Almighty of Boston contributed to the digital elements.
**Full list of New Balance world-class athletes in the campaign:
Baseball: Robinson Cano, Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, Yadier Molina
Football/Soccer: Samir Nasri, Vincent Kompany, Aaron Ramsey, Adnan Junuzaj
Running: Jenny Simpson, Brenda Martinez, Emma Coburn, Guy Learmonth
Tennis: Nicole Gibbs, Milos Raonic, Heather Watson
Triathlon: Sebastian Kienle, Non Stanford
Please visit www.newbalance.com/beta for more information. The campaign’s hashtag is #AlwaysInBeta. Media information can be found at http://newbalance.newsmarket.com.
About New Balance
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. New Balance is the only major company to make or assemble more than 4 million pairs of athletic footwear per year in the USA, which represents a limited portion of our US sales. Where the domestic value is at least 70%, we label our shoes Made in the USA. New Balance owns five factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 5,000 associates around the globe, and in 2014 reported worldwide sales of $3.3 billion. To learn more about New Balance, please visit www.newbalance.com.