Women’s History Month saw Gap-owned sports and leisure brand Athleta roll out the first wave of work in a new, multiphase, long-term brand campaign aimed at empowering women and girls called ‘Find Your Movement’.
The campaign, which was conceived and produced internally and debuted on 1 March, aims to ‘cement the brand’s goal of championing the power of movement in all of its various forms’.
The platform’s debut creative from the athletic apparel outfit is fronted by its ‘Power of She Collective’: an ambassador team set up by the retailer in 2023 which focuses on iconic women athletes and which is an evolution of Athleta’s ‘Power of She’ idea first introduced in 2016.
The launch spans connected TV, digital and streaming video, rich media and digital out-of-home elements (the latter are focused on key city markets such as Los Angeles and New York City), plus paid and organic social media across Meta, Snapchat, Reddit and TikTok. A print strand is led by a full-page print ad in The New York Times on 10 March.
At the core of the work is a dynamic, upbeat hero spot starring leading Athleta athlete ambassadors Simone Biles (gymnastics) and Katie Zaferes (triathlon) alongside a line-up of other athletes. On 1 March, the ad rolled out in 30- and 15-second cuts across YouTube, Hulu, Peacock and other CTV partners and will air through 15 April.
It includes the key copy line: “When the power of your body meets the truth of your heart, you’re in it – where you belong. Athleta inspires you to Find Your Movement.”
Paid and organic social media activations support ‘Find Your Movement’ with a focus on Instagram and TikTok where the brand will leverage the stories of real people (including figures skating, basketball, swimming and snowboarding) who all embody the campaign’s ethos around celebrating movement in its various forms.
Further strands of the campaign will roll out through the year – particularly around the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics (including a June spot forming an emotional tribute to Biles ahead of the Games) – and will also feature a pop-up event In LA in May and a Power of She web platform acting as a hub for advocacy, events, a mentoring initiative and community impact programmes.
The campaign launch also dovetailed with an announcement that Team USA swimmer and 10-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky had joined the ‘Power of She Collective’ as part of a five-year partnership and will appear alongside other members within future installments of the campaign as well as take part in designing, advising and testing.
Welcome to our Power of She Collective @KatieLedecky 🙌
From winning gold in the pool to championing STEM education for young girls, Katie's dedication to #PowerOfShe wow-ed us from the start. #WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/WDhrmRTc7G
— ATHLETA (@Athleta) March 1, 2024
Meet the newest member of our #PowerOfShe Collective Katie Ledecky 🏊
Stay tuned for more from Katie. pic.twitter.com/Au3rdFHZwa
— ATHLETA (@Athleta) March 1, 2024
“Find Your Movement really a rally cry, it’s really that we intend to impact and influence culture in a much more thought leadership way,” said Athleta Chief Creative Officer Julia Leach. “There is generally a mission for us to make a difference in the world that runs very deep, and that’s what we’ll be doing more with the platform that we launch in September so that it’s something meaningful. It’s not just more content or a light lift, it will be about truly mattering in the world around the topic of women’s empowerment.”
“Power of She doesn’t ask anything of you, it’s there as an entity. ‘Find Your Movement’ completes the sentence,” added Leach at the campaign launch event. “Your movement could be myriad, in a million different ways, but it can also be this bigger idea of the movement that, frankly, is still so needed in the world around women’s empowerment and gender equality.”
Athleta’s recent marketing has led more with a focus on a bolder brand and its support for female empowerment rather than focusing on specific products.
The brand says that it hopes this new marketing push sets out to be ‘the spark that will light the fire’.
Time will tell.
The importance of this wave of marketing is further highlighted by Gap’s recent year-on-year sales decline