PUMA came to us looking for a campaign to reenergize their sputtering lifestyle business. Over a decade the business had become stagnant, and we were tasked with first figuring out why, and then correcting it.We realized PUMA lacked a clear brand identity, so our objective became to revitalize PUMA lifestyle business – not just by increasing sales but by permanently establishing a creative umbrella to encompass the brand.Delving into PUMAʼs colorful sporting past, we identified a space that only they could own in both sport and lifestyle: The Joy of Sport. The Joy of Sport is about the sheer pleasure of running fast or celebrating a goal with your mates. In todayʼs war-like world of sport the pure unadulterated joy of the game was a huge cause that PUMA could credibly champion in sports and in life.To help PUMA embrace this identity, we uncovered a new kind of consumer that we called the ‘After Hours Athlete.’ These athletes put the joy of sport into life as well as into sport. To them – life was a sport and they were playing it everywhere and everyday.We then created a brand anthem –in the form of a 90 second film – to expose and celebrate these unsung sporting heroes of the night and to treat them with the reverence that they too deserved as they strutted their type of game on their field of play. As the campaign unfolded, PUMA - a brand that people had forgotten stood for anything at all - became the most uniquely defined sports brand in its class – one that stood for The Joy of Sport.The film was a key vehicle to catapult our After Hours Athletes to stardom and was launched online and on television. It formed the sharp-end of a campaign from which rest of the elements took their cues. The activity not only reversed the decline that PUMA had seen over the four years prior, but we saw a massive 10.4% growth in sales from 2009 to 2010; and for the first time, PUMA eclipsed $4 billion in sales.

The creative behind PUMA Social and The After Hours Athlete helped build an entirely new category. By looking beyond the traditional lifestyle cliché, we sponsored the largest group of un-sponsored athletes out there. Athletes like you and me. And that is something we have never seen creative do before.