UA GLOBAL FOOTBALL
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
As the managing studio, MAWKO created a strategic brand campaign for Under Armour to relaunch their global football identity. We captured and told the story of select UA footballers on the verge of greatness. Our primary direction showcased Trent not just as a pro athlete sponsored by the brand, but as a young determined homegrown footballer from Liverpool. The campaign was captured a few weeks prior to the start of the season where Trent would earn a starting spot in Liverpool FC’s squad and excel on the pitch in both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.
Scope included internal consulting and extensive market research to analyze the state of the highly competitive global football category and determine how to best position Under Armour within it. Understanding competitors’ positioning and the client’s available resources allowed us to identify a strong realistic brand opportunity where a strategic campaign would tell the story of UA’s next generation (youth) athletes and thereby allow the brand to gain a competitive advantage over the incumbent brands who primarily showcase veteran high-profile athletes.
The campaign was designed with multi-purpose intent to solve omni-channel activation needs and consistency across print, retail, and digital by UA and their partners.
We took the journey with Trent from London to Liverpool and followed him around his home environment while capturing him with a docu-style perspective training in the gym and visiting his elementary school, childhood neighborhood and the local park where his love of football began.
The primary intent for this campaign was activation across social and digital channels, however due to its success timed with the success of Trent’s subsequent season this campaign acted as the spring board for an extended brand campaign as an Under Armour elite athlete.
While the narrative focused on Trent Alexander-Arnold as a homegrown professional footballer from Liverpool, UA branded product was natively infused into the campaign. This pushed the overall style away from traditional advertising, and more towards an editorial story-telling opportunity that allowed the branded product to be a part of football life, on and off the pitch.
““Wow””