THE THINKING.

Under Armour wanted to break into the running category in Germany, but they had no credibility or awareness there.

We travelled to Berlin to find out what makes our target audience tick. After spending time walking, talking, and running with the target audience, we found that there was a clear disconnect between how they felt, and how they were depicted. 

They didn’t feel accurately represented by the image of runners in Germany, and wanted to show the world that they were “the punks of running”.

This challenger spirit was not only alive amongst our audience, and at the heart of Berlin’s culture, it’s also a sporting truth that aligned with Under Armour’s philosophy: you must challenge the status quo, because convention is the enemy of progress. 

Thus, our creative platform ‘Run Verboten’ was born, and we targeted Berlin’s biggest running event of the year, the adidas-sponsored marathon, to launch our new social-first campaign encouraging Berliners to do what comes naturally to them, run against the grain.

‘Run Verboten’ became the heart of our campaign, and operating system for how we behaved including hijacking OOH locations around adidas’ marathon course, organising a running event in an abandoned spy base, and geo-targeting runners with social posts.

The campaign turned Under Armour into the most talked-about sports brand in Berlin, generated millions of earned impressions, and made adidas look like conformists in their own backyard.