Puma launches first global brand campaign in a decade
The sports brand is making its “biggest marketing investment ever” to focus on performance positioning.
By Molly Innes
Puma has launched its first global brand campaign in a decade in a bid to boost its performance positioning ahead of a big year for sport.
According to the brand, ‘Forever. Faster. See The Game Like We Do’ marks its “biggest marketing investment ever”, aimed at positioning Puma as the “fastest brand in the world” in terms of how its products help athletes achieve high performance.
Vice-president for brand and marketing at Puma, Richard Teyssier, explains this campaign is the “first time that Puma has one single message” in its marketing across different categories, from football and running to basketball and handball.
“The holistic brand message is emotional and distinctive to make sure it connects and resonates with our target customers,” he says.
Launching today (10 April) the campaign will run across TV, social media, outdoor, PR and point of sale worldwide. The creative features elite athletes such as footballers Jack Grealish, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr, alongside sprinter Shericka Jackson and basketball player Breanna Stewart.
Last year saw Puma restructure its marketing function and begin to execute a new strategy to “elevate” the brand, CEO Arne Freundt explained earlier this year when reporting the firm’s 2023 financial results.
The reorganisation project saw Puma move its brand marketing function from Boston to company headquarters in Germany, as well as establish a new marketing and brand leadership team headed up by Teyssier. Last year the company also established a consumer insights team to gain a deeper understanding of its customer base and opened a new ‘entertainment marketing hub’ in Seoul to complement similar hubs in Los Angeles and London.
Puma has lagged behind its direct sportswear rivals in recent years. Indeed, the brand’s YouGov BrandIndex score – a measure of overall brand health – ranks last place in the sportswear sector with a score of 14.7 compared with Reebok (17.4), New Balance (20.1) and Under Armour (20.4).
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Unsurprisingly, market leaders Nike (31.1) and Adidas (35.3) top the YouGov ranking as of 7 April.
In 2013, Puma announced it was unifying its sports and lifestyle marketing efforts to allow it to capitalise faster on culturally relevant sporting events. It was followed in 2014 with the strapline ‘Forever Faster,’ which has been repositioned a decade later in this new campaign.
The increase in marketing activity comes as sports brands ramp up for a blockbuster year with this summer’s Olympic Games, the men’s UEFA European Football Championship and Copa América, alongside a host of other events.
