Champion launched a national ad campaign featuring a new tagline, “How
You Play.” The campaign, which includes print, out-of-home, online and
viral components, is designed to capture the everyday moments of fun
and sport in a series of cool and hip lifestyle images.
“The new ad campaign for Champion represents an exciting new chapter in
the history of this iconic brand,” said Claire Edgar, Director Champion
Brand Marketing. “While we have always played off our strength as the
authentic athletic brand for the real athletes everywhere, we also
wanted to show off our stylish side especially to younger consumers,
those in their 20's.
“It's about injecting fitness and fun into the many vignettes of our
lives. For most of us, we enjoy sports and fitness, especially as a
time to engage with our friends, but working out is not our entire
life. The new “How You Play” campaign reflects Champion's approachable,
energetic spirit outside of the traditional gym environment – you see
men and women running on the beach, playing touch football or enjoying
time together at home.”
The new campaign, created by The Kaplan Thaler Group, is the company's first work since winning the account.
As part of the out-of-home campaign, an unusual outdoor execution will
feature two adjacent billboards showing a man and woman in separate ads
at New York City's Penn Station and in Los Angeles. The man appears to
be checking out the woman who is looking over her shoulder at him. They
soon “move in together” into one billboard, while the other billboard
displays the Champion logo.
The print campaign will launch in November with gatefolds, spreads and
full-page ads running in Details, Maxim, Blender, Vogue, US Weekly,
Lucky, Cosmopolitan and other magazines through January 2008.
Out-of-home bulletins and out-of-home street kiosks will run in cities
such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Miami until spring
2008.
“The focus of the campaign is about all of the people in our lives and
how we integrate sports into the big picture,” said Linda Kaplan
Thaler, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of The Kaplan Thaler Group.
“Together with photographer Miko Lim, we were able to capture some very
compelling and breakthrough images which we then executed across a
variety of media to communicate our messages in new and very creative
ways.”
The “How You Play” campaign is the first for the Champion brand, which
is owned by Hanesbrands, Inc., since 2003. It also marks an increased
investment behind Champion since Hanesbrands' spinoff as an independent
company in September 2006.
On October 31, Hanesbrands announced on October 31 that is has entered
into a multifaceted 10-year marketing alliance with Walt Disney Parks
and Resorts, including naming rights, product co-branding and category
exclusivity for apparel sales involving the Champion and Hanes brands.
Hanesbrands acquired the naming rights for Champion for the stadium at
Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Champion Stadium will be home for the Atlanta Braves spring training
and is part of the nation's premier amateur sports venue, attracting
more than 1.1 million visitors and 240,000 athletes each year. In
addition to being the official activewear apparel for the sports
complex, Champion has category exclusivity, along with Hanes, for
select apparel, including T-shirts and fleece wear, at Disneyland
Resort in Anaheim, Calif., Walt Disney World Resort, and all eight ESPN
Zone restaurants and stores across the country. Much of the apparel at
the venues will be co- labeled ESPN Zone by Champion and Disney's Wide
World of Sports Complex by Champion.
The alliance also includes in-store promotional and brand building
opportunities at the ESPN Zone restaurants in Anaheim, Atlanta,
Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, New York City and Washington,
D.C. The alliance was announced Oct. 31. Terms were not disclosed.