Ideas We Love: Sound Mind, Sound Body 🏃♀️🪜⛑️
Issue Number 24: ASICS are building a mental health platform they hope will last for generations
Hello there!
As the world around us continues to speed up, we arguably now live at work—with a shift to hybrid working prompting an always-on mentality to the job.
A big part of how Matt deals with “pitch” / “big preso” / “big meeting” stresses in this context, is through a new found love for parkrun on a Saturday morning. He doesn’t see himself as a runner, but loves a 5KM stumble around the parks of South-East London chasing his (increasingly in the distance) 11 year old; simultaneously blowing off the cobwebs and resetting the brain whilst helping stay (a little less un-) fit at the same time.
The reason why we share this insight into Matt’s Saturday mornings, is that it neatly bridges into this weeks Idea We Love 💕.
The Idea. ASICS: Sound Mind, Sound Body 🧠💪
Now both of us have worn ASICS at some point, but neither of us knew that those five letters have meaning beyond “running gear”. ASICS is an acronym formed from the Latin phrase “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano” or “Sound Mind in a Sound Body”.
Oooft. Lovely.
A phrase which has been given prominence as part of a new brand platform Sound Mind, Sound Body the brand hopes can become their version of Dove’s “Real Beauty”; to propel the cultural and commercial potential of the ASICS brand for generations to come.
They’ve started bringing this to life in varied ways, from teaming up with leading researchers from Kings College London to create a Global State of Mind Index - proving just 15 minutes (and nine seconds to be precise) of movement is all it can take to begin feeling the mood-boosting effects of exercise…
…to partnering with UK mental health charity Mind to assert that personal bests are feelings, not numbers - accentuated by sponsoring and featuring the last person to cross the finish line from 2023s London Marathon.
The choice to emphasise “casuals” at a time of huge technological innovation in the category is a brave and bold move, but if done well might just pay dividends.
Why we love this idea…
Original thinking, born from ASICS origin story 🏃🏃♀️🏃♂️
It’s fair to say that, at least intuitively, ASICS have likely been bleeding pretty heavily in recent years. De-positioned on performance by Nike’s carbon plated Vaporfly & Alphafly’s, de-positioned on style by a rejuvenated New Balance and challenged by an explosion of new kids on the starting blocks from ON Running & Hoka to even the likes of Arc’teryx, The North Face & Salomon branching out from mountain sports, to going head to toe into trail running - what was a pretty stable category yesterday is anything but today - thus it must be increasingly harder for ASICS to win share of mind and market.
From experience, when many brands face challenges like these, they mimic the fastest growing challengers; however ASICS looked inwards and have found something from their origin story that is authentic, at a time when the mainstream are more in-tune with mental health than they’ve ever been.
What we’d love to do with it
The point of this section is to suggest things we’d like to do with an idea free from the shackles of budgets and approvals, to accelerate the potential of this new brand platform.
In this-case not only associating with the wellness benefits of being active, but becoming a facilitator, then ideally a preferred outfitter of those active pursuits.
#1 15:09 as a distinctive and directional ad/content-format
The research ASICS commissioned found just 15 minutes and 9 seconds is enough exercise to boost your mood. Just typing that is making us want to get off the keyboard.
How might you use that specific chunk of time to create new formats to engage consumers and get them up, out and active.
Flexing ad-formats: For instance, you could split an act across two TV ad-breaks where different protagonists start their 15 mins “live” in one ad-break and end it in the next… or more simply jolt people 15 minutes into scrolling, browsing or watching various bits of content to do something more uplifting with their time instead. We’ve also seen pre-rolls on YouTube that have been cut to the 0-60 MPH time of a Tesla or a Porsche - what about flipping that idea and creating a 15:09 “workout within the pre-roll” that rewards people getting active, without getting in the way of what they’re trying to watch - I wonder if there’s a way of synching an Apple Watch to a pre-roll 🤔
Companion Utilities: Formats are one way in, you might also create companion utility to compliment the activity, fusing music and meditation in the form of 15:09 tracks people can use to help reach their “Runners High” when exercising. Rather than just re-mixing existing tracks, why not work with musicians known for their love of exercise and running to create 15:09 sets that can be released at regular intervals.
Lots to play with born from the same insight that ASICS research uncovered.
#2 Park Run Takeover
The next thing we’d recommend is to boot Brooks out of their (what appears to be) one-dimensional sponsorship of park run and put some rocket-fuel behind it.
Park run for those of you who may not be familiar, is a community-based project, bringing people of all levels together and getting them running 5KM on a pre-set course that’s put on each and every week by volunteers; it’s the perfect manifestation of Sound Mind, Sound Body.
However don’t just badge it, help park run make better apparel that can make them More cash, help park runs across the world make better promotional materials (using Drones obvs) that attract more runners; use ASICS global scale to port this amazing project into new markets of shared interest and demand; use participation, or volunteering at these events to create “special entry” into other events ASICS sponsor that may be harder to get into.
If a partnership with park run is not available, pick out the top inclusive running clubs and crews that have been built community-first and make them the stars of your comms.
#3 Strava Meets Tinder
Park Run’s great, but it’s locked to 9AM on a Saturday (or Sunday for Junior Parkrun).
What about creating a new social-media network that blends the joy of running with the benefits of companionship. Strava meets Tinder. Where you upload your district, pace, goals and preferred routes and people can add you to create running crews who go out and get active together. Or vice-versa if you fancy a running mate simply load-up your planned route and pace and send-out a ‘Bat Signal’ to everyone who’s on the app within a suitable radius to come join you.
You might call the app RaceBook or YourPaceOrMine.
If you like this, you’ll love…..
Here are some of the other ads and activations it reminded us of. In this instance, we were reminded of other brand platforms that lean on wellness, that campaign for members of their target audience to see themselves and the world differently, or used media formats in a way which allowed them to play with time in a nice way….
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty
The OG. The campaign that launched a thousand social experiments.
ITV’s Get Britain Talking
A landmark partnership between one of the UK’s biggest media brands and charities Mind and Young Mind’s. The real skill of this type of partnership is how it’ll get used across the various brands and shows within the broadcasters portfolio, allowing the issue at hand to be dramatised, unpacked and explained by different, diverse voices.
Lululemon x Calm
Lululemon's partnership with the mindfulness app Calm uses meditation to promote and aid mental wellness.
‘Make Moves Fund’ by Nike, Spotify & FLO
A recent STEER report reveals that 18-year-old girls are over twice as likely to face mental health issues compared to boys their age. In response, Nike & Spotify have launched the Make Moves Fund, aiming to boost young girls' confidence and potential through music. Led by the British girl group FLO, this initiative highlights the positive impact of movement on mental health and offers £20,000 grants to UK community organizations supporting young women
Pasta Playlists by Barilla
Barilla launched a series of Spotify playlists that match the cooking times of their pasta varieties. Each playlist is curated to provide the perfect soundtrack for the exact duration needed to cook the pasta to al dente, blending culinary art with music enjoyment.
Until Next Time
As always, any thoughts or feedback you have are greatly appreciated.
Until next time,
Cheerio
Tom & Matt