Jocelyn Runice

Beverly Ramos

Beverly Ramos

 

It was December of 2018, and New Balance was planning to feature two new apparel styles the following April: a women’s running tank and a men’s t-shirt, both premiering within the Q Speed collection. I joined a cross-functional team to pitch, develop, and launch the marketing campaign.

I was the expert on social media best practices, and acted as a social media creative director for the project. I helped to get approval and achieve cohesion from various functions and leadership teams across the company, and programmed where and when all of the content was going to live across New Balance social media channels.

The brief was simple: Show consumers how the sweat-wicking technology effectively helps runners stay dry, and feature an athlete in the marketing.

“When it came to choosing an athlete for the campaign, I was (as always) eager to tell a female perspective, and lobbied behind storytelling around New Balance athlete Beverly Ramos. ”

Beverly “Bev” Ramos is an accomplished Olympic runner from Puerto Rico. In 2017, Bev was training in Puerto Rico for the upcoming TCS New York City Marathon when Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria destroyed her home: there was no running water, no power, limited food supplies, homes were ruined, and roads were often blocked with fallen wreckage.

“However, even with all of the physical and mental obstacles, Bev stayed and continued training in Puerto Rico. She ran as a symbol of hope and inspiration for her country.”

As we began mapping out primary marketing deliverables, we decided upon the following:

  1. An upper-funnel YouTube long-form video that shows how Bev exemplifies the power of sport by coaching young runners in her hometown of Puerto Rico. While Bev would wear the Q Speed tank throughout, the story would focus on Bev herself instead of directly commercializing product.

  2. An IGTV cut of that upper-funnel YouTube long-form video for the @newbalance Instagram channel.

  3. A lower-funnel stop-motion video that showed Bev and a male counterpart running in the Q Speed tank and t-shirt.

  4. A lower-funnel portrait of Bev wearing the Q Speed tank.

 
 

The cross-functional New Balance team partnered with a Director (Colin McCarthy), Director of Photography (Campbell Brewer), First Assistant Camera (Derek Street), and editing house (Eskimo Productions). In January, Colin, Campbell, Derek, Tori Arnold (a New Balance producer), Alexis Stoll-Scigliano (a New Balance marketing associate), and myself all flew to Puerto Rico to meet with Bev and bring our vision to life.

 
 
 
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Final Social Creative Assets

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“In 48 hours, the Beverly Ramos IGTV video became the third most viewed and valuable post (as measured in adjusted media value) on @newbalance, ever. ”