Zendaya x On Running

On Running has signed a partnership with Zendaya: the hottest young star in Hollywood.
There are three reasons they're doing this...

Evolution 📈

One, is the natural evolution of the company and where they're at.
They’ve built a strong audience in their core competency: RUNNING. They’re now looking to expand into training and culture.

Women 🙋‍♀️

Two, they need to expand into women.
They started in footwear, mostly catering to men and while they’ve connected with women, they need to grow an apparel offering to cater to women even more…which leads us to 3.

Apparel 👚

And three, they are trying to expand their success in shoes into apparel. They’ve got the hardest part figured out, but growth will require apparel.

But what happens when the celebrity is bigger than the brand?

So first, if we look at my proprietary athleisure chart, you see that any brand that has started in footwear, mostly serving men, eventually needs to expand into women and apparel.

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And one of the best ways to do that is through an entertainer. There's not a single athlete in the running-sphere that has the influence of Zendaya.
Out of the most followed people on Earth, Zendaya is number 23. There are only three athletes in the top 25, and they're all global football stars, which ON has no access to bc they’re not in soccer.

This is a natural evolution. All of the big brands partnered with entertainers after they've established themselves in their core competency of sport. This is also about diversifying their roster. A Swiss running brand is It's pretty vanilla if you know what I mean.

And lastly, they announced this with a film collaboration because product collaboration takes forever.

But why is On the only one posting about it? 👀

Zendaya has been entirely silent about the campaign on social. Meanwhile, On has posted 9 times and on their stories. Not a single one of these was a collab post, and this is very problematic in our social era.
On has nearly 2 million followers, and Zendaya has nearly 200 million.

They need her in influece in social, because Zendaya is not showing up in many authentic places with On. Unlike athletes in the sports space, not only do brands have them on field or on court, but they have tunnel moments and entertainment moments in pop culture as well.

Even music artists have success because they can show up in different places. Travis Scott is a great example of a partnership that's worked well, but Zendaya has aligned herself to film & high fashion.

I assure you there is a brand team and a social media team at On who is punching the air right now because Zendaya's team will not either respond or accept the collab request for any of the nine social media posts. But hey, we're early. Who's gonna hit the panic button yet…?

Me. 💁🏼‍♂️

Education:
I’m teaming up with the Avengers of Marketing & Branding!
@OrenMeetsWorld, @Shwinnebago, @BimmaWilliams and I will go LIVE on Instagram Friday at 11a CST.
Join Us.

Blessings:
It’s Men’s Mental Health Awareness month, will share this once more in that spirit.
No talk of Athletes or Branding here, but a lot about Faith, Family and Failures. Was honored to join my dear friends on this podcast. We share a heart for bringing people together regardless of backgrounds. Ramo and I worked in Brand Marketing at Nike together, and Erin’s husband is one of my best friends. Hope this can bless you in some way!