WILSON BRAND RE-LAUNCH
Like all of the great creative platforms, Wilson’s came from a great strategy.
WILSON IS EVERY ATHLETE’S FAITHFUL WEAPON
When Serena Williams is playing center court at Wimbledon. When the pressure is on in the third set and she flubs a shot. She doesn’t take off her Nike shoes and throw it in anger. She takes it out on her racket. Curses it, looks away from it or smashes it on the ground. Her racket is an extension of her. Just like every athlete’s equipment is an extension of them.
This powerful relationship between the athlete and their equipment became the basis for every communication touchpoint we created for Wilson. It informed the advertising campaign, the new brand identity, and everything else we did to re-launch this great American company.
social: Wilson testimonials
We highlighted the same relationship in a social campaign, where we asked pro athletes across every sport to make a powerful declaration about what their Wilson equipment means to them. Two years later, the #MyWilson hashtag is still showing up in users’ content from all over the globe. A concise, consumer-adopted shorthand for the most important relationship in athletes’ lives.
Social: The living anthem
We also invited kids all over the world to upload videos of themselves on the court, the field and the course...which we then edited into the actual brand spot. So young athletes could have a personalized version of the commercial they could share via social media.
Although Wilson has been around for over a century, the world knew them for their gloves, rackets, clubs and other equipment (which, by the way, is collectively the best sports equipment on the planet). But Wilson never really took the time to build a brand for the company itself. So we created a brand book that defined what Wilson stands for, leading to the tagline "Fully Equipped." Which, sadly, was eventually killed.
Here's the case study for the Wilson launch campaign.
"thank you Serena"
When Serena Williams was on the verge of winning the calendar-year Grand Slam, we decided go beyond just congratulating her on the achievement (which turned out to be a good thing, because she lost in the Open semis). We then asked players who’ve been inspired by Serena to send her a message on Wilson’s social media properties. The response was awesome.
