What Did Phelps Do For UA When He Became Olympic Champion Again?

At the moment when Phelps won his twenty-first Olympic gold medal, there was no doubt that he was the focus of the world.

Rio Olympic Games, Under Armour is not official sponsorship. brand There are not many athletes who sign up, nor do they have huge investments. But they have played an excellent marketing with their limited resources.

This year's Rio Olympic Games, UA can play a good card, there are three: the national gymnastics team, Michael Phelps (Michael Phelps) and Stephen Currie (Stephen Curry), but Curie does not participate in the Olympic Games, the real trump card is only left Phelps.

In swimming, Phelps's height is hard to catch up with other athletes. He is also popular in the US. His Twitter fans number is 1 million 830 thousand. In March this year, Phelps made it clear that he would retire after the Olympic Games. UA This is the chance to win this trump card.

Pre Olympics advertising films

5 months before the start of the Olympic Games, UA photographed a "Rule Yourself" (self managed) advertising film for Phelps, which is Phelps's training day after day before the games. Start warming up for Olympic marketing.

In the dark, the blue lane was interspersed and looked like a lingering nightmare. After six months of drunk driving ban, you can see how eager Phelps is to go back to the top.

In fact, it is not the first time for UA to advert to athletes' peacetime training. In last August's "Rule Yourself" series of advertisements, MVP, Stephen Currie, and professional golfer Jordan Spieth, the dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, the Misty Copeland, the NBA 2014-15 season, appeared. In the same period, there are the National Women's gymnastics team and Holland star Memphis Depay.

When people gaze at athletes' field awards, their diligence in "ten years of work on the stage" deserves more attention. So there was a series of advertisements of UA, which had to be said that these advertisements were very successful. After watching this advertisement, Phelps could not help crying. "I think it really shows me what kind of person I am, which is what I want. I think the world has only seen part of my sports career, but I believe that through this video, I can see the real me. Phelps said.

"From our point of view, when it comes to the efforts behind success, no one is more convincing than Phelps," Andriy Lofton, vice president of global marketing at UA, told a press conference in Baltimore in March 8th. Phelps's great world is known, but what is more representative of his greatness is his efforts behind it. We hope that through this marketing project, we can present these unknown moments, so as to inspire all athletes to go beyond their limits.

Thanks to good marketing practices, UA's stock came to the fore during the Olympic Games.

(UA) stock movements in the NYSE

Customized Gym shoes

The packaging of Phelps is all directional. A few days before the opening of Rio Olympic Games, UA released a pair of sneakers tailored for Phelps, and also used 3D printing technology. UA also added some touching details to the shoes, which printed the footprints of Phelps's newly born son, Boomer. It has to be said that UA will do well in caring, which reflects the brand's temperature.

Although this marketing is in place, there is still something that people can not help but smile when Phelps appears in front of the public. Swimmers are all naked when they are playing, even in training.

Although it is not yet seen how much sales growth this Phelps sneaker can bring, there are some clues from past experience. UA is the most successful one for basketball giant Stephen Curry. According to the results of UA's second quarter 2016, the revenue brought by Kuri sneakers has reached 58%.

Cupping

In the advertisements above, there is a cupping that is familiar to Chinese people. With the Olympic Games going on, Phelps showed "mysterious black purple circle" in the competition, attracting numerous eyeballs. Cupping therapy has become a topic of discussion in the US media. According to CNN (CNN), pots have taken up the instagram account of Olympic athletes. Subsequently, the The Associated Press published a report entitled "Phelps's endorsement for cupping".

Phelps also burned himself in social media to relieve fatigue by cupping.

From advertising to Olympic Games, the high frequency of cupping is not surprising. It may not be an accident. Because before that, many foreign athletes used cupping therapy to relieve fatigue.

Perhaps this is part of the UA marketing campaign to attract media and sports fans' attention to Phelps. After the hot spots, the follow-up of media reports also gives UA a lot of opportunities to expose brands.

From this we can also see that the corporate endorser is not only relying on the reputation of the spokesperson to enhance their brand awareness, good marketing means can make the spokesperson more red and more popular, and the two sides promote each other to achieve a win-win situation.