2024-08-09 13:15:02
Thomas Lanis, Marketing Director of Puma France.
On the occasion of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Puma will use the wonderful performances of its main spokespersons to work harder on its brand image.
By backing athletes, the world’s third-largest equipment maker after Nike and Adidas aims to use the visibility the latter provides to attract consumers, especially as it gears up for the start of the new school year.
To find out more about Puma’s activities and challenges during the Olympics, we asked a few questions Thomas Lanis, Marketing Director of Puma France.
Sport Buzz Business: What does the 2024 Paris Olympics mean for equipment manufacturers like Puma?
Thomas Lanis: As a major sports equipment manufacturer, the Olympics are clearly the ultimate moment for brand expression and innovation. We have the best athletes in every discipline competing to achieve their biggest goals. As equipment manufacturers, we must provide them with the best, high-tech products, whether it is running shoes, sports shoes, football shoes, basketball shoes, handball shoes, etc. Three years on, we’ve relaunched a running range with a host of innovations, notably Nitro technology, which uses nitrogen for shock absorption and rebound. We also find this innovation in basketball and handball products.
Sportswear is also very important as they allow athletes to gain those few hundredths of a second that make all the difference on the track.
Beyond technology, there are obviously symbols and images associated with federations like Jamaica or even Sweden or Norway, where we have people like pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis and 400m hurdler Carsten Warhol Such a great athlete. For us, they are the main communication elements that enhance the brand as much as possible. Historically, Usain Bolt has done this for the brand.
“As a major sports equipment manufacturer, the Olympics are clearly the ultimate moment for brand expression and innovation”
SBB: Usain Bolt remains the Puma ambassador.
translate: Yes, he is a lifelong ambassador of the brand. At our event this year, current athletes who carry the torch are among the athletes we are highlighting, such as Shericka Jackson, Karsten Karsten Warholm, Mondo ‧Mondo Duplantis, and even Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh. There’s more! There are more than a hundred athletes in track and field alone, with an equal ratio of men to women.
SBB: The marketing expenses for this Olympic Games are the highest for the brand in more than ten years, right?
translate: With the Forever Faster campaign, we wanted to create a campaign that featured these athletes. For investing, this is what has been announced at the largest event ever.
The idea is to explain what “always faster” means. Obviously, the concept of pure speed is evident in sprinting. But this idea of speed is also present in all movement, whether it’s the speed of reaction, speed of execution or speed of receiving information. It’s this speed that allows athletes to get a head start in a basketball game, making the necessary pass, score or interception at the right time…it’s also the visual speed of the game. Athletes explain. We tested the campaign a few months ago and achieved very good results in terms of understanding and impact associated with the brand.
Among the challenges are obviously our boutique on Sevastopol Street, which is the brand’s physical point of contact with Parisian consumers. We took advantage of the Olympics to transform it. We opened it to the outside to let in the light, making the experience even more welcoming. From the outside, you can better see what’s going on inside, making you want to come back. The store is modular, which allows us to have multiple event configurations.
“The Olympic period is not the peak consumption period for our products. On the other hand, we know that in a few weeks the new school year will start.”
Image source: Puma
SBB: In these Olympic Games, you also deployed the “Puma House”. Can you introduce this place?
translate: These two weeks we settled in Saint-Ouen, not far from the Olympic Village. The purpose of this place is to welcome our athletes before or after competition. While they’re there, we can leverage their presence to create content. The House of Puma welcomes media, content creators, influencers, customers, employees to share the energy of this competition, the incredible energy of this French sport.
Image source: Puma
SBB: For this Olympics, you chose orange in order to be clearly visible on television. Is this effective?
translate: We strive to create a very impactful and unified whole, whether it is sports shoes, running shoes, basketball shoes, handball shoes, football shoes, etc., in order to have a strong brand impact on all athletes.
The idea is to study the contrast between the color and surface of a product, whether it’s an athletics track, a handball or a basketball floor. You have to find a color that’s easy to see and celebrate performance through that warmth and shine. From a brand perspective, this homogeneity makes it possible to create greater impact through repetition.
We cook here 🔥#foreverfaster pic.twitter.com/tT3MzlkEiN
— PUMA (@PUMA) August 6, 2024
SBB: In terms of business activity and commerce, can we say that the Olympics are an equally prosperous or a rather quiet period?
translate: This is not so much a business and sales problem as it is an image problem. The Olympic period is not the peak consumption period for our products. On the other hand, we know that the new school year is starting in a few weeks. The Olympics inspire kids’ careers, or so we hope! The more people who participate in sports, the larger the market and the more sports brands that sell products for practitioners. Therefore, the Olympic Games started this virtuous cycle in this four-year cycle.
SBB: Puma’s turnover has more than doubled over the past decade and will reach €8.6 billion in 2023. Is the brand’s return to sports effective?
TL : Over the past decade, Puma has refocused on sport and performance. As a sports brand with a long history, we must never give up our pursuit of performance and innovation. All fashion and lifestyle is the result of credibility and the power of movement, which makes it also legitimate because movement has an influence on style.
Image source: Puma
Image source: Puma
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