On: Use of Video
The On mission is to “Ignite the human spirit through movement.” We believe everyone can benefit from movement, and that movement should be accessible to everyone. This inspires the strategy for creating video content that moves people in every sense of the word. In 2021, we adopted a “running is for everyone” strategy, seeking to represent and support more people than ever to make more of the sport at the heart of our brand. As the fastest-growing performance footwear brand on the planet, that meant creating more video content with greater diversity and reputation, all with humans at the heart of the narrative.
Goals
Goals for the “running is for everyone” strategy spanned three areas:
Inspiration
This is about balancing the truly aspirational with the instantly relatable. It’s about celebrating the achievements of athletes of every level – and showing our audience how they can follow in their footsteps.
Community
The focus here is on representing real running communities, increasing diversity and giving others a platform – especially those challenging stereotypes of how a runner looks and behaves. We also celebrate the achievements of our community members.
Innovation
Bringing our shoes and apparel to live through humans – whether that be the athletes and run crews that wear them to achieve their goals, or the team in the lab that developed them. We focus on benefits over features to give our audience reasons to believe in our products. And we show people wearing them, so our audience can see the role these products could play for them.
Challenges
Capturing, creating and publishing more video content than ever, with a focus on delivering a diverse mix of stories from around the world? That’s a big ask for a content team that was just 8 people at the start of 2021. Add in the limitations of a pandemic, and it’s practically impossible. But we like a challenge at On. Helped by a clear strategy and driven by an athlete spirit within the team, we were able to create and publish 72 international video productions on our owned channels despite restrictions, including 12 complete video series. When many parts of the world were still in lockdown, our team effort inspired our community with content that took them places.
Results
We delivered high-quality video content across all pillars of the strategy:
Inspirational
We celebrated the superhuman stories of ultramarathoners and Paralympians like David Brown. We also launched our new brand mission with a film about what happens when we “Dream On.”
Community
Our Every Runner series profiled runners who are changing our sport not by setting records, but by challenging conventions. We gave platforms to groups like OUT-FIT, who are creating a safe space for LGBTQI+ athletes to train. Our Run the City series brought local running insights to a global audience. We gave viewers either a taste of adventure at a time when travel was difficult or, if they were in the city, a practical guide to running and culture.
Innovation
Our innovations can be complex, not least Cyclon – the first fully recyclable shoe available via subscription. Our human-first approach told the technical stories of products through the people that made, tested, and wear them. We also piloted live YouTube content for the first time. This played a role in increasing our YouTube subscriber base by 42% to over 27,000 people. In total, our video content was able to show over 106.7 million viewers around the world that running is for everyone.
