ASICS - ASICS / Upliftford

WHAT WERE WE TRYING TO PROVE?

An experiment to prove that moving with ASICS could lift the mood of an entire town.

THINK

Our strategy was to show the ASICS brand positioning in action, to show the UK public that moving with ASICS has an impressively positive impact on both their physical fitness, but also, importantly their mental wellbeing. In doing so, we would shift the necessary brand perceptions and sales would follow.

DELIVER

We embarked on a unique experiment to prove that moving with ASICS could lift the mood of an entire town. Through research, we pinpointed the place in the UK with the lowest mood rating. That place was the sleepy town of Retford in Nottinghamshire, with a mediocre State of Mind score of just 56 out of 100. So we invited Retford residents to move with us to see the impact on their own minds and the mood of the entire town.

We transformed a mile and a half of Retford roads into an activity route turning lamp posts into goal posts, benches into bench presses and bus stops into bus steps. This involved months of preparation, complicated logistics, and extensive builds.

 And to prove the impact, we used the ASICS Mind Uplifter. This scientifically developed web app would measure the impact of exercise on Retford residents’ moods before and after exercise. Using a combination of facial mapping technology and self-reported data, we could accurately measure the impact of moving with ASICS on individuals and the whole town.

MAGNIFY

This activity was all captured on film to create compelling content for distribution to a broader audience, thus extending the positive effect and inspiration to move to improve your mood.

Through the film, the Upliftford experiment caught the attention of the UK population. With 18 million views of the Upliftford film across social and digital channels and 37 million digital impressions. The campaign generated over 240 pieces of earned coverage, landing key messages relating ASICS and movement and the mind with headlines such as “ASICS show off the mood-elevating power of movement” in the Daily Mail and “ASICS is uplifting the UK’s mental health through running” in Runner’s World.

RESULTS

Through the ASICS Mind Uplifter, we saw a whopping 27% Mind Uplift, with the town’s State of Mind score increasing from 56 to 71 out of 100.

Councillor Carolyn Troop, Mayor of Retford said: “I’ve no doubt that the event uplifted the town and its people.”

The Upliftford experiment had a profound impact on brand preference, with purchase intent for ASICS running shoes increasing 79% after being exposed to the campaign in the UK (Source:MeMo2 Crossmediatracker – Retford uplift study).

But more fundamentally, the Upliftford experiment dramatically increased ASICS’ market share in the UK from 20% to 25% for YTD Q3 2021.