Connecting Trent Alexander-Arnold’s character traits and Under Armour’s brand values across retail, digital and out-of-home.

Under Armour challenged us to help the brand’s relevance within the JD Sports consumer base. Working closely with the brand we had three simple aims: keep it simple, lose the advertising ‘fluff’ and keep the product front and centre. Our objectives were driving a strong engagement rate and product sell-through in the men’s training category at JD Sports.

Under Armour's mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation.

CHALLENGE

Linking Trent’s traits and Under Armour’s brand values in the mind of the consumer 

Focus. Determination. Humility. Defiance. Four characteristics that have defined the rise of Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool’s youth setup through to becoming a European champion. Four characteristics that also resonate strongly with Under Armour’s brand.

Our challenge? Bringing these characteristics together in a campaign that would resonate with the JD Sports consumer across multiple channels – at retail, out-of-home and an extensive social media activation with media investment.

OUR APPROACH

We understood that defining an iconic silhouette for Trent Alexander-Arnold in photography was just the beginning. We’d need to combine this with a powerful message and supporting narrative to engage the consumer at every campaign touchpoint. 

Trent Alexander-Arnold had just become a Premier League winner for the first time. Keeping our focus on simplicity at front of mind, we landed first on the ‘Champion’ campaign message – but we felt we could evolve this further.

Famous for being the ‘scouser in our team’, we wanted to define Trent as an icon in his home city of Liverpool. ‘Homegrown Champion’ was a natural evolution in this direction from the original one-line strap. 

Looking beyond the campaign hero image, elaborate creative approaches were quickly pulled back to our obsession with losing the fluff and keeping the product front and centre of the campaign. We were quick to realise - what better way to highlight four characteristics than by calling them out directly? 

Capturing stills with Trent in various environments, we highlighted his character traits through single images. In-store, we used a variety of different pieces of powerful imagery in point of sale.

The campaign extension for social media, narrated by 'The Kid', focuses on Trent’s journey as a homegrown talent - from growing up playing football on the streets to where he is now. Each scene is used to show the viewer a different attribute which the young fan believes is crucial to the makeup of a Champion..

RESULTS

The creative concept for the project brought together the four characteristics and Trent’s iconic silhouette across JD Sports retail stores, out-of-home executions in Liverpool and an extensive digital media plan.