Although this ad campaign “I’m Going” (Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zone Dance Company - who claim to wear PUMA shoes) has been out a few months ago and I never bothered to write about it just cause it was useless in many ways! And now, i’m actually so annoyed of seeing it that I want to write about it to correct the confusion PUMA is drawing on themselves. The ad campaign is titled “I’m Going” - basically it’s stills of people in motion “on the go” which is a reflective philosophy PUMA has been claiming for the past 2-3 years now. How’s it working out? Well - continue to read and we’ll see what my fingers end up typing!
A few years ago PUMA wasn’t making any any money at all - in fact PUMA wasn’t even considered a competitor until Jochen and his entourage decided to step in the game and structure some strategies. To make a long story short, PUMA started to earn money and drew major attention through exploiting talents from weak-economical countries, most of which is the reason PUMA is fully dedicated in the development of areas such as Africa, Jamaica and so forth - in the most reason acquisitions (Iran and Saudi Arabia) PUMA realized the business growth potential in these vast territories, now their “some what” interested in the development, however they are pushing for sales in China (which is the main focus right now, CHINA). Mind you there isn’t any investment into the Middle-East market that is being allocated from PUMA AG-GmBh. With that said PUMA tailored (a word they LOVE to use when describing their uniqueness) their marketing strategies based displaying a “inner-cool” image of the brand through cost effective ads and promotions. This seemed to work - PUMA gained visibility and things looked promising. In regards to the ads - something happened a few years ago that ultimately put PUMA on the map!
Although it’s a fake ad and PUMA denied any claims of responsibility (although they loved the publicity) - it boosted the visibility in the market and for that year increased the sales of PUMA sneakers. Continuing, so why are these ads important? Well, because they have the ability to create a buzz, which could work for you and profit your business or unfortunately work against you and destroy the image of your business in some cases temporary until you find an alternative or in the worst case permanently. The above ad was positioned at the right place at the right time! (I love the expression). With today’s technology continuously improving at a fast paste (soon we’ll be living in clouds & driving flying cars), many people became totally obsessed with the internet (some even married off the internet - I wish I did). In regards to PUMA, the above ad set up off some kind of a “PUMA perv” ad trend and as we as know, the internet is synonymous with nudity & devious behavior and people had the tools (being the internet) to manipulate whatever they wanted thus resulting with PUMA gaining major visibility without doing much work (hence, being at the right place at the right time - and it was a Brazilian Ad agency who was responsible for the above ad). Here is another one of my fav “non-official PUMA Ads”.
A year or 2 after, PUMA launched the “Hello” campaign (feel free to download it: here - which was a similar concept that had a “hey you! we’re also KOOL with a capital K” type of feel to it… personally I loved this campaign because it was simple & PUMA was keeping it real (one of the reasons was because they didn’t have a big marketing budget but that didn’t matter, the message was as clear as it gets).
In 2006 - Red Sox’s Damon poses for PUMA in their latest ads.” Martin Bil, creative director at Renegade Marketing in New York, said the quiet way in which Damon does his own thing gives PUMA a natural spokesman - distinctive, but not a real character. Bil, who also sports long hair and a beard, “but not the lantern jaw,” views the Hello campaign as PUMA’s effort to “maintain that insider cool hipness without looking like (they’re) trying to appeal to everyone all the time.” “You have to be very careful when you grow a brand that started out (grassroots). It can very easily seem like you’re selling out,” he said. Other athletes tapped for the campaign were pro skateboarder Scott Bourne and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, neither of whom is that well-known. Said Puma’s Barney Waters: “We don’t necessarily look at the statistics as much as the personality of the athlete.” Here’s an image of Johnny Damon - I personally like that the ad is not aestheticized like in the “I’m Going” campaign.
At that time in March of 2006 - I launched PUMATALK. Most people thought of me as a crazy dude that was launching a PUMA website so that people can discuss all related PUMA products. Again most people hatted and tried to make it impossible for me to tap into the market which is all good cause normally people who hate on original ideas are useless and non-achievers. PUMATALK stepped in the game by reframing the aesthetics of PUMA through maximazing the it’s philosophy. What does that mean? Read it again! Now that you read it twice here’s the meaning; PUMATALK is unique and independent of PUMA. PUMATALK is built and tailored by PUMA lovers from all over the world. I guess it’s similar to WikiPedia where one member can edit information that is incorrect or can contribute quality information to the community. Let’s keep it short, in the last 2 years PUMATALK has gained tremendous visibility in regards to PUMA as well as an innovative community. Similar to the “Hello” campaign we keep it real, we do not exploit our site to gain “more” in-accurate members (similar to the “I’m Going” campaign)!
And that’s all folks! That’s my whole point of this article is to prove how irrelevant and in-accurate the “I’m Going” ad campaign is, however maybe it’s influenced by the fact that PPR owns a large share of PUMA and they are attempting to align them-self to fashion, although it’s quoted by Jochen, “PUMA is Sports - Lifestyle & Fashion and we’ve always felt comfortable with this mix”. I just wish the money spent on these ads (which I estimate about 30 000$ for producing these images) were invested wisely! PUMA - keep it simple stop trying to reach out and proving to the world - be yourself - be FRESH! And continue to visit PUMATALK :) Here are some complimentary images to influence your next AD campaign :) Or you can always view “The Killer, Victim & Finale” campaign.
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