21 Oct Saucony Launches Everun Campaign for NYC Marathon
Saucony will launch Everun, its new cushioning technology, with the brand’s biggest marketing launch to date. The introduction will coincide with the retail launch of the Triumph ISO 2 and Guide 9 at the New York City Marathon.
“Everun is not only a game-changer for us but for the industry as well,” said Patrick O’Malley, senior vice president of global product for Saucony. “Runners are once again responding to the benefits of cushioning, including increased energy return and underfoot comfort. One of the primary objectives in the development of Everun was to deliver a continuous cushioning experience to runners, combining smoother landings in the heel with reduced pressure in the forefoot.
“Our designers came up with a fundamentally new approach we call Topsole™, a breakthrough construction process that positions our best cushioning material closer to the foot. The result is that Everun delivers the same plush feel in mile one as mile twenty, continuously giving back to runners, especially at the end of the run when they need it most,” added O’Malley.
A video showcasing the technology is here.
Everun’s patent-pending Topsole construction process positions a 3mm layer of Saucony’s revolutionary Everun foam material closer to the foot, directly under the sockliner, instead of embedding it in the midsole below a layer of rigid cement. This construction process distributes propulsion force over more area, reducing local peak pressures while delivering a dramatically more lively and responsive ride.
The Everun Landing Zone and heel insert provide remarkable impact protection, maintaining cushioning properties three times longer than standard EVAs while returning 83 percent of the energy absorbed, according to research in the Saucony Human Performance and Innovation Lab.
The technology will later be incorporated into the new Hurricane ISO 2, Kinvara 7 and Peregrine 6, arriving at retail in early Spring 2016.
The Saucony Everun Series of performance running shoes will be supported by the biggest marketing launch in the company’s history.
“Not only is Everun a breakthrough in cushioning and construction technologies, but this is also the first time that Saucony is using video animation in a marketing campaign,” said Mary O’Brien, vice president of global marketing for Saucony. “We’re always looking for the best way to tell our story. We knew that video animation would not only be entertaining and fun, but it would make a rather intricate technology story clear and meaningful to runners everywhere.”
The launch campaign focuses on the ground-breaking idea behind Everun, occurring in a secret laboratory in an undisclosed location. The new multichannel global marketing campaign features an animated video starring fictional lab technicians Max and Miles, the purported inventors of Everun.
The conversation between Max and Miles provides a unique and amusing take on their eagerness to share their newly-discovered continuous cushioning technology with runners everywhere. While Max delivers a serious high-tech explanation of Everun’s myriad benefits, Miles eagerly gives his own perspective of Everun in excitably unscientific terms: “There’s this stuff we came up with amazing stuff! You should see the stuff this stuff can do!”
Social teaser posts of the new campaign will begin in mid-October along with a global blogger/key influencer seeding of the Triumph ISO 2 and Guide 9.
A print and digital integrated media launch on November 1 will coincide with the retail launch of the Triumph ISO 2 and Guide 9 at the New York City Marathon.
The campaign will be supplemented by in-store elements at key retailers, including custom window displays, in-store towers, bench wraps and wall backers launching in November as well.
The global marketing campaign will run through 2016.