Recently, Adidas has attracted widespread interest with a campaign called “walk a new path”, which started at the end of 2022. Continuing the brand’s environmental awareness and developing the brand’s initial message. ‘Impossible is nothing’, this campaign is considered a new beginning for Adidas to explore the stories of the younger generation about sport. Today it is a pleasure to have the head of the brand-Jamie for an interview.
Editors: Good morning, Jamie, welcome to our interview. Today, I would like you to share with us the story and idea of the ‘walk a new path’ campaign. The first question is ‘why did Adidas wanted to organize this event?’
Jamie: The inspiration for this campaign came from a conversation I had with my niece, a sophomore. When I met her this summer, she looked very depressed and listless, making me worried about her mental health. In our conversation, she told me that she has been under a lot of stress lately. As the University remained concerned about the health impacts of the pandemic on students and teachers, she had been staying at home attending lectures virtually for 3 months. After attending online classes, she found that the quality of online courses was significantly lower than that of the in-person teaching she experienced before. She felt alarmed and afraid that she would graduate without learning anything. Secondly, she also told me that many of her friends were having a difficulty finding suitable internships during the epidemic because most suitable positions were refusing to take on new young staff because of the lockdown. My niece and her friends were now facing uncertainty about both their studies and their future employment prospects.
After listing to her troubles, I hoped to help her relieve her stress. As an expert, I know that exercise can effectively reduce stress, so I took her out for a jog in a nearby park. After half an hour of jogging, she felt very tired. But at the same time, she told me she was in a much better mood. ‘I haven’t run in the park for a long time. When I smell the grass, I suddenly feel less anxious. Although difficulties still exist, I think I can calm down and think carefully about how to better solve them’, said my niece.
I later brought this up with my planning team and we found a lot of information to prove that there was indeed an increase in stress in both the live perspective and study perspectives of this generation of young people due to the epidemic. We felt that creating this event would be a good way to help the younger generation relieve their stress and rebuild confidence.
Editors: why did the brand choose to promote the campaign online and offline together?
Jamie: equality and impact are two main reasons for doing this campaign both online and offline. Firstly, Adidas is a brand that highly values equality. When we planned when and where this event would take place in London, we fully noticed that there would be still many young people who cannot make it to the designated location at a specific time. To provide equal opportunity for those who could not participate due to distance or other objective reasons. We decided to hold an online event concurrently with the offline event. It is possible for young people to go jogging in a park or other natural environment near their homes, and the rules for participation are more liberal.
The second reason is the impact. Today’s young people are the Internet generation/ they are more willing to obtain information from the Internet and social media, as well as participating in social media activities. The premise of attracting young people to take part in our event us to let them know that there will be an activity. And the videos they posted on social media can also help to expand the influence of this event within their networking, creating a lasting positive impact when you look back at our past campaigns, you will see that almost all of them have been offline, so creating an online campaign is an experiment for the brand. Although Adidas is considered an old-school sports brand by the masses, we still want to keep up with the times and continue to come up with promotions and campaigns that are up to late.
Editors: what massages did the brand attempt to convey through this campaign?
Jamie: According to market research, we found that nearly half of the UK’s Z-age population feels anxious because of the blockade, which is a constant, prolonged period that prevents this group of young people from interacting with their friends face to face, and a severe lack of outdoor exercise. We interviewed many students between the ages of 18-25 and found that they were keen to spend time outdoors but were unable to do so because of the environment, money, transport, and other constraints. So, we started this campaign to get the younger generation out of the house, away from the screens and back into the natural world to experience the meaning of green living, even if it’s just spending an afternoon jogging in a nearby park. We believed that when the younger generation experience the relief effect to outdoor exercise on stress, they will consciously increase to embrace nature and have a healthier lifestyle.
Editors: how much did the brand ended up donating to the charity?
Jamie: As we promised at the start of the campaign, for every participant we donated one pound to the UK National Parks Foundation for the creation or restoration of the nature park. Our statistic has shown that 40,434 young people participated in this campaign, among which 2569 participated in the offline event and 37865 participated in the online video campaign. Therefore, we donated $40434 to the UK National Parks Foundation. So, keep an eye out for the park to be built. Charity donation is a win-win strategy. We have got a lot of positive feedback is contributing to charity. It is consistent with our initial intention of encouraging more participants to take part in our activities. And we also hope that with our small contribution, we can help to build more green spaces for young people by helping to build parks in the UK.
Editors: why do adidas choose marathon jogging among so many other sports?
Jamie: First, we believe that the marathon is a low-cost sport that does not require professional equipment and adequate space to practice compared with other sports such as yoga or cycling. Jogging is also a beginner-friendly exercise that most young people would like to join in. secondly, scientific studies have shown that regular long-distance running can improve cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of various diseases in the body. Long-distance running also accelerates the body’s metabolism, detoxifies the body, and removes undesirable substances from the body. It also has a positive effect on the heart. Long-term exercise eliminates the accumulation of excess fat and improves the body’s shape and the distribution of muscle. As well as strengthening both physical and mental willpower. We chose to invite young people to try marathon jogging in this event, hoping that they could start with novice-friendly jogging and persist in outdoor sports, and eventually develop strong willpower in long-distance running.
