ASICS taps ambassadors for social media stunt as part of new shoe launch

ASICS recently partnered with five Singapore ambassadors to drive a social media stunt surrounding its new pair of shoes, the GEL-KAYANO27. It roped in Soh Rui Yong, Chantalle Ng, Ayden Sng, Zong Zijie and Chui Ling Goh for the KAYANO Virtual Relay Run on Instagram Stories to drive hype and create a sneaker conversation online. During the 3.5 hour virtual relay, ASICS Singapore's Instagram account garnered more than 13k organic impressions, interacted with more than 1.8k fans and grew its account by 3.4%. The social media stunt was conceptualised and executed by ASICS and W Asia.

In a statement to Marketing, regional marketing communications manager Roy Lan said the social media activation will be rolled out in Malaysia and Indonesia in the coming weeks. According to him, ASICS identified through new and ongoing research that amidst the isolation of lockdown, consumers have either fallen in love with or rekindled their love for running. The initial results from a live study of 14,000 regular exercisers across 12 countries, found that more than a third (36%) of them are more active now than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic began – despite most sports being brought to a standstill by social distancing measures. Meanwhile, two-thirds (66%) of runners cite running as the best form of exercise they can do at the moment. Nearly two thirds (62% globally) say they plan on continuing to run in the future.

Lan said the team decided to bring this insight to life with the virtual relay run. "Over the past four years, we have rolled out successful regional ASICS Relay races that saw more than 75,000 participants join. With physical races cancelled around the world, we took invaluable learnings from these past events to present our ASICS Ambassadors a moment and a goal to rally around, albeit virtually," he added. Lan also explained that since the onset of COVID-19, media consumption habits have changed significantly. With a surge in online and social, Lan said the brand's eCommerce traffic, conversation and social reach have risen considerably.

"To reflect these changing habits, we are focusing on our ASICS community of ambassadors to spread the news of the GEL-KAYANO 27 launch. We believe these personalities can be powerful, authentic storytellers to help generate the required buzz; and will be well-supported by a slew of carefully calibrated PR and digital marketing tactics to engage, educate, and convert," he said.

The brand recently named W Communications to handle PR and social duties in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile in Malaysia, GO Communications was also appointed to manage PR duties for the brand.