According to a report in Advertising Age, Under Armour is planning to
hire a new creative agency to come up with an advertising campaign
around basketball.
Under Armour's senior VP-brand, Steve Battista, told Ad Age that four
shops are under consideration for the assignment are Omnicom Group's
Goodby Silverstein & Partners; MDC Partners' CP&B; Interpublic
Group of Cos.' TwoFifteenMcCann; and independent McKinney. The winning
agency is expected to be named in three weeks.
Under Armour tapped year-old startup Consigliere Brand Capital to help
select the participating agencies and guide the review process.
Said Battista: “We've only sold a limited number of styles to the
public in basketball footwear. Most of it has been on the court for our
teams and in testing, so the next year-and-half is really our coming-out
party for basketball footwear.”
The review was seen as a sign that Under Armour is ramping up its
advertising activities overall.
“We've worked with outside shops
sometimes,” said Mr. Battista. An early exploration for a project for
its women's line “didn't pan out for a variety of reasons” so it's “only
really the second time we've done [an agency review], and we want to
try some things out and we want our partners to try us out.”
