In a departure from the typical high intensity running narratives, On Running has teamed up with beloved Sesame Street character Elmo for their campaign “Soft Wins.”
Created with the agency Flower Shop, the campaign introduces the Cloudsurfer 2, reportedly the softest running shoe the company has ever created. The athletic brand is encouraging runners to embrace a gentler, more balanced approach to their running activities.
This latest initiative builds on On Running’s growing momentum, including its recent Super Bowl spot featuring Elmo and tennis legend Roger Federer.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the campaign.
The Details:
- While the message in “Soft Wins with Elmo” was a bit more forward to American viewers vs the Roger Federer :30 (which focused on the brand name), the newest On ad was still mostly about the characters (Elmo):
- The move away from assisting viewers in understanding the unusual brand/logo led to significantly lower (and well-below norm) unaided On recall for “Soft Wins” (-40 pts).
- In fact, just one in four successfully recalled On independently (this is an unprompted question in iSpot’s survey) compared to 62% seeing the Federer spot. 55% in the “Soft Wins” audience reported an inability to recall the brand, non-recognition of the brand/logo, or that the branding went by too quickly. Non-matches most often included mentions of soft/soft wins and/or Elmo. This suggests enhanced branding would best be a priority for the brand in any forward ads (and possibly edited into “Soft Wins”) including clear audio branding to ensure better recall/awareness.
- Scores are indexed to one year apparel & footwear advertising norms.
- The move away from assisting viewers in understanding the unusual brand/logo led to significantly lower (and well-below norm) unaided On recall for “Soft Wins” (-40 pts).
- The character-led ads both delivered above-norm breakthrough (Attention and Likeability) for On, but the confusion around the brand led to a perception of lower Information delivery in “Soft Wins”:
- The newest ad met or exceeded category overall response across age/gender other than among M36-49 on the strength of the characters.
- Emotional profiling of viewer comments on “Soft Wins” reveals a higher level of negative reactions with a great deal of confusion expressed by American viewers, many of whom struggled to determine what the ad was about, or learn anything about the product other than enjoying the Elmo content:
- Despite a message that was recognized by some, after seeing the new creative, 43% of all viewers reported increased likelihood of purchase/visit, vs 49% of those seeing “Letters of the Day” and a category norm of 50%.
Sample comments on “Soft Wins” :30
“I liked it. Elmo was a nice guest star. It provides a nostalgic character and a good message. However, I am unclear what the ad was about. It could have been clearer about that.”
Female 16-20
“I enjoyed the ad. The visuals were good, seeing and hearing Elmo got my attention, and it wasn’t overwhelming. It was nice and simple, and I understood the message.”
Male 21-35
“Slightly confused. The shoe product isn’t really advertised here, it’s mostly a positive message, but that doesn’t really encourage me to buy the product. Why should I buy these shoes? Because Elmo wants to play tag?”
Female 21-35
“I’m not sure what type of product is being advertised, but the message is pretty good and I always welcome Muppets on my screens.”
Male 21-35
“I like it. It is very inspiring and would definitely push someone to keep going and to not be so hard on themselves.”
Female 16-20
“I don’t recall anything other than people jogging and Elmo and a few clouds in the beginning. Maybe only two.”
Male 16-20
“I think it’s awesome. Love how they incorporate Elmo to talk about running and how soft the shoes feel.”
Male 36-49
“I was confused by the ad, it didn’t show much of what the ad was for, not until right there at the end and you got a 2.2 second glimpse of the brand, which I didn’t even catch.”
Female 36-49
“Felt quite nostalgic with the Elmo cameo, though didn’t quite get what was being advertised.”
Male 16-20
“I actually really like this ad and I watch it every time I see it, but the problem is that I don’t even know what it’s advertising. All I know is that there is Elmo.”
Female 16-20
- Competitive apparel & footwear brands aired creatives over the past 90 days that have outpaced the On spots among American viewers:
- An Adidas spot as well as Nike’s Super Bowl ad featuring female athletes were more Empowering. While just launched, the messaging in “Soft Wins” did not spark empowerment among American viewers. This could be linked to the message itself, but viewer verbatims point more to a focus on Elmo and the viewer’s own confusion leading to softer message landing (or it being missed entirely by some).
- iSpot’s emotional measurement platform gauges Cultural Perception of ads, indicating both positive and negative reflections on the brand.
- The Empower metric measures the positive impact of an ad’s message, indicating the degree to which viewers find it encouraging, inspiring or motivating.
- The Exploit metric quantifies the negative impact, indicating the degree to which an ad might offend viewers in some manner, whether that’s via stereotyping, pandering, objectification, glorification, portraying racism or sexism, or even a brand attempting to attach themselves to a cause that is not relevant.
- The Empower metric measures the positive impact of an ad’s message, indicating the degree to which viewers find it encouraging, inspiring or motivating.
- An Adidas spot as well as Nike’s Super Bowl ad featuring female athletes were more Empowering. While just launched, the messaging in “Soft Wins” did not spark empowerment among American viewers. This could be linked to the message itself, but viewer verbatims point more to a focus on Elmo and the viewer’s own confusion leading to softer message landing (or it being missed entirely by some).
- Second-by-second trace results reflect excellent early engagement with the help of the characters in the On ads, but generally flat engagement beyond the initial blip, which could lead to inattention:
- As such, non-skippable media is recommended where possible, to ensure full delivery of the message and the end branding.
- The Elmo creatives have connected most successfully with American viewers with household incomes over $75K, suggesting media targeting opportunities:
Advertisers need to identify the creative that will drive business outcomes and ensure that in-market execution aligns against the highest potential ads.
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Creative Agency: Flower Shop