Overview: 
 
Revitalising the New Balance brand amongst youth.
 
New Balance was not a desired brand amongst the youth generation in 2017. The brand was perceived and stigmatised as out of date and unexciting. The objective was to reverse this and attract a young and hip crowd to the brand and inspire them to run. The solution was to create a digital community-driven campaign that asked them a universal question and went beyond the traditional campaign channels.

A digital application was built around Love/hate – the two conflicting compulsions felt by runners and it went further by playing to their deeper emotions. Users voted whether they love or hate running and also asked them a more intrinsic question: What really makes the world go around? With every Love vote, the New Balance world icon on the application went faster and became brighter. The opposite
was true for Hate. A built in email component allowed viewers to further drive engagement by sending out personalised Love/Hate mail templates to their contacts, rallying even more new votes. Throughout the site, the interactive seeding of the latest New Balance running range was central to maximise brand interaction. There were also weekly prizes awarded to those who rallied the most votes.

Results – within one month 167,846 votes were cast. 49% of active application users interacted with the Love/Hate campaign.
The effective acquisition mechanic received a successful 38% response rate.
 
Campaign Strategy    |    Creative Direction    |    Development