June 7, 2024 • 23 mins
We unlace ideas about the new Brooks “Let’s Run There” campaign featuring Jeremy Renner and jog through our rankings of the buzziest running shoe brands of the current moment.
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #Brooks #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #JeremyRenner #Running #RunningShoes
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #Brooks #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #JeremyRenner #Running #RunningShoes
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Speeding Human. Today on Speaking Human, we unlace ideas about the new Brooks
Let's run their campaign featuring Jeremy Rennerand Jog through our rankings of the buzziest
running shoe brands of the current moment. Speaking Human. Welcome to Speaking Human,
(00:31):
where we simplify the world of marketingfor humans. I'm Shad Calmly and
with me as my co host PatrickJebber. So, Patrick, do you
have any new next gen slang toshare with the listeners today? I do,
I dow but a wonderful surprise.Yeah, we've been trying to do
(00:52):
this next gen slang. I guessit's a little quick segment at the beginning
of the cast, and today Ithought I would share a fun one that
comes through the ranks of my ownhousehold. All right, So this is
the word chat ch at, asin hey chat. So this phrase originated
(01:18):
from Twitch streamers, the actual Twitchstreams, and the streamers would ask their
viewers their aka chat something, andit's now used by YouTubers and other streamers
more casually, but more importantly,it's used in everyday conversation now, which
is transferred over from the online worldto now people are just saying it when
(01:40):
they're talking to people in a group. You walk into a room and it's
your friends or just a group ofpeople, you say, hey, chat,
what's happening? The online examples thatthey used to, like a Twitch
streamer, for example, would say, hey chat, what do we think?
Like chat becomes the name of thegroup. Yeah, you address a
(02:00):
group of people as chat, right, And I was I was actually informed
that you you can't use it plural. It's not chats, it's chat.
It's a singular thing, like dear. Yeah. So one of these interesting
things, the evolution of something.You know where it begins, and then
you know it comes from this specificplace for example Twitch, then it kind
(02:24):
of makes its way into you know, every day of vernacular on these different
sites, and then you know,now we're using it outside in the in
the live world, people are liketalking and using this. Who knows ten
years, you know, people mightnot even know they're saying it where it
actually came from, or it'll disappearcompletely. We don't know what's going to
(02:46):
happen with a lot of these things. But the origins how these things seed
and catch on you just you couldnever predict it. Yeah, it's really
important to kind of stay up onthose because they do tend to sometimes make
their way into popular vocabulary. Thisone's also fun to just say to people
(03:07):
and throw them off, yeah asthey look at you strangely and wonder what
you're talking about, but may notsay anything, or they might say like,
what did you call me? Yeah? Leading in this is what would
have been said, Hey, chat, did you see what happened to Jeremy
Renner? So running from that segmentto the real topic of our show what
(03:30):
you alluded to there, Let's talkabout a new marketing effort from a brand.
I don't think we've ever discussed onthis show before. I could be
wrong. Show goes back a littlebit of ways. Now I can't,
you know, fact check everything.I can't listen to all those hours our
research assistance. You know, theyjust don't have the time to go through
(03:50):
every single episode. But I'm prettysure we've never mentioned this brand before,
at least they've never led a showor a segment of the show. That
brand is Brooks. We're going totalk about them today in a new marketing
campaign they just launched with the actorJeremy Renner. Do you want to give
us a little bit of background onthat campaign, Patrick, Yeah, so
(04:12):
about seventeen months ago, give ortake, depending on when you're listening to
this episode, doctors told Jeremy Rennerhe's an actor, the hurt Locker,
the Avengers, the town, thetown. That's right. So the doctors
told him that he'd be lucky towalk again after being critically injured in a
snow plowing accident. He was runover by his SnowCat, which sounds crazy.
(04:36):
I remember when we heard this newsand it was like, what happened?
Yeah, I mean, it wasreally freak accident. But today he's
not only walking again, but he'srunning. Hence the Brooks relationship to the
marketing story of today's episode, JeremyRenner featured in a new campaign for Brooks
(04:58):
called Let's Run. There. Theircampaign revolves around more than just him,
but he is one of probably iwould say, one of the center spokesmen
for the brand. Right now.Yeah, here's what they have said about
this Let's Run their campaign transforming tragedyinto a superpower. In twenty twenty three,
actor Jeremy Renner was in a horrificaccident. Against all odds, he
(05:20):
returned to running and transformed a lifethreatening event into a life affirming source of
inspiration. Watch him explore how adversitycan propel us toward our there whether a
new beginning, a dream, ora goal. So that's the premise around
their campaign. As they're following JeremyRenner and his rehabilitation, you know,
(05:44):
you get videos and a lot ofhis story as he gets back into running,
you know, even moving his body. If you go back into the
origins of this, Brooks you know, actually sent him a pair of shoes
while he was rehabilitating once they heardabout his story, and that's how this
relationship started. In this campaign takesthat the next step forward, following him,
using him as a source of inspirationand using that as kind of like
(06:10):
like you were talking about the thruxof this this campaign. So let's talk
about this campaign a little bit.Obviously this popped out to us a little
bit. Brooks a brand don't necessarilysee these high profile marketing campaigns on the
level of like you know, aNike or something like that, where they're
coming out all the time. They'rea little more under the radar. What
(06:31):
do you think makes this campaign unique? Patrick? What stands out about this
one to you. You know,when I sent this, I sent you
this real essentially that came in myInstagram and I was like, this is
really interesting, you know, thisidea of Jeremy Renner promoting Brooks this brand
because of the way in which theydid it. You know, it was
(06:55):
told first person from his point ofview. He gives a little bit of
backstory of what has happened to himand how he almost died. He didn't
think he was ever going to bea walk again, and sort of this
like inspirational story of him just perseveringthrough this, right, and this is
all in a real on Instagram,you know, and it's a very natural
extension of the brand because he's justtalking a very matter of factly like Tiki
(07:18):
mentions. They send him shoes andthey felt good on his feet when he
was trying to, you know,learn to walk again, and it felt
very natural and genuine, authentic even, which is what we always try to
strive for on social And he hasthis sort of charismatic, lightheartedness about his
whole accident, but it feels likehe's not really plugging the brand. It
(07:41):
feels like he's just kind of tellinghis story and that is what makes this
super unique. And it's a verypowerful testimonial about a person who went through
something that is horrific and his specialcircumstances that led him to come back from
almost certain death. Yeah, Imean, I think you hit it.
It has this organic, authentic feel. I know, we throw those words
(08:07):
around a lot, or they're getthrown around a lot in the marketing world
today, but this one actually hasit. It doesn't feel like marketing,
you know, when you're watching thisand when you kind of hear the story
how this partnership emerged from circumstance tosome extent, rather than you know,
hey, hey, let's make adeal. You're the perfect ambassador for our
brand. At least that's the storywe're being told anyway. And because it's
(08:31):
Brooks and Renner telling it to us, who are, you know, seem
more authentic and trustworthy than some otheryou know, celebrities and brands and some
other celebrity brand partnerships. It seemsto come from a real place. I
think it's notable that when you're talkingabout like a running brand or a running
athletic brand, Renner is not aprofessional athlete. You know, he might
(08:52):
be athletic, or he might havebeen athletic, he might have been a
runner, I don't really know,but that's not what he's known for.
And there's like this you know,every man quality to him. So what
he's basically doing now is just tryingto come back from an injury. You
know, the fact that he's evenable to walk, You're like, it's
amazing. I mean the guy hadlike thirty eight broken bones. They you
know, put steel and iron inhis body or whatever they had to do
(09:16):
to get him upright. I mean, he was basically seemed like he was
dead at the time this thing happened. And now you know, the fact
that he's doing what he's doing isjust impressive. So I think having him
as you know, the figure ofthis is something much different than what you
would typically get, which is like, you know, here's an athlete who's
achieving this highest level. You know, it's the runner who's breaking records or
(09:41):
you know, somebody who's doing somethingincredible. Here's a guy who's just trying
to come back from a horrific injury. And on the Brooks end, this
is not a brand that necessarily feelsoverexposed or overkilled, like a lot of
them. You know, if thiswas if this was Nike, would we
have a different reaction to it.Maybe because they've done a lot of these
(10:01):
inspirational things and they're so like goodat putting those together. But this is
Brooks's first new global campaign in twentyfive years, so this is not something
they really like are known for.They're just known as like this, here's
this solid brand that runners know,you know, and they kind of had
this this partnership they send people shoesand this thing happened as a result.
(10:24):
So it has that feel to it. And I don't know if that's real
or not, but it feels realand you know, his story, it's
inspirational. But what makes it realpowerful and unique to this is that he's
not an athlete, but coming backfrom an injury or being an average person
coming back from something or just tryingto get you know, closer to your
(10:46):
goal is relatable. Right. Youcan relate to that a little bit more
than you can the super athlete.Therefore, it's just got this quality to
it makes a huge impact when yousee it. In some ways, you
get you get your cake and youget to eat it too, and that
you have a star a well knownfigure, but yet he's not this you
(11:07):
know, unreachable. I'm never gonnabe like this guy. You're like merging
almost two different campaigns in a one. So do you think this is effective?
Do you think this campaign? Doyou think it's gonna get people to
know Brooks buy more shoes? Doyou think it's gonna have a positive result
for this brand? I do.Here's why I think it's effective. It's
the power of perspective. So thisad it gives you Jeremy Renner's perspective,
(11:33):
even if it's limited to looking througha small window into what happened to him.
And I say that because you know, this is like what you were
saying. This is what we're beingtold right, how he overcame the toughacads,
and how this brand is associated withthat small part of his recovery.
Part though, about perspective is thata story can leave out a lot of
(11:54):
the details, and you know,the viewer fills in the blanks. They
don't see the real hard shit.Somehow you make the connection that the shoes
were sort of what inspired him toget up and run more and do these
things. Did his shoes give himhope? Probably not, I mean maybe
they felt good, but in reallife, when you're in those moments the
(12:16):
shoes, you might be like,oh, these are comfortable, but your
incentives and your motivation is never reallytied to those things you know that you
have on your feet, maybe insome small way. And the perspective it
gives us as the audience is thatthese shoes had a much bigger role in
his recovery story than they really mighthave. And ladies and gentlemen, that's
marketing to make that stronger connection betweenthe brand and the testimonial. So I
(12:41):
think it's effective in that way.Yeah, now that's a really good point.
The way it's put together and theway you get this little glimpse you
look through this little keyhole into Renner'srecovery and his whole story. You make
Brooks into the hero of that story. Not that they push that, you
know, not that they need topush that. Your mind is just kind
(13:05):
of going there like, oh,this shoe helped him do this, not
that he's ever saying at any pointthough, I couldn't have done this without
this shoe, or if it wasNikes, There's no way I would have
ever done this. There's nothing likethat nothing like on the surface, you
know, it's what you read intothe story. Yeah, I mean that's
the power of marketing, right,is like you're just kind of giving a
(13:26):
sliver and you're telling the story,and the audience makes that connection and it's
like anything else, you know,you make it into something maybe a little
bit more powerful than what actually happened, and that's okay, you know,
no, no, And I thinkthat's kind of the genius of it.
I think for me, probably themost effective piece of it, I think
(13:46):
is what they did by establishing kindof almost the low stakes of this.
Again, it's not like get up, you can do it, you can
run a thousand miles today, it'sjust put on the shoes and walk,
you know, to see how faryou can go? Where can you get
to? I think this campaign,what they put together, has the potential
to like really expand the Brooks reacha little bit. I mean, this
(14:09):
is a straight up running shoe company. Nobody really wears Brooks first style.
They're mostly known by runners, youknow, but this campaign has the potential
to touch all the demographics. You'reold, you know, you're young,
you're non athletes. This is somethingthat might get your attention might inspire them
to, you know, slap onsome of the shoes, try to go
(14:31):
for a run, even if it'sjust a short one. Maybe even just
walk around. You know, youmight hear what he's saying, what he
kind of went through, and belike, yeah, I should just get
out there and do something, youknow. So I think his story is
that potent and the way they kindof put it out there, So I
love that about this. I thinkit's really got that potential to expand the
brand. And you know, aren'twe all looking just to be a little
(14:54):
bit more inspired And that's what thisdoes. It's an inspirational story and it
and it kind of makes you think, Wow, I don't really have a
lot to complain about. Look whathe did, he achieved all of this.
I've just been making excuses, youknow, I should definitely get up
and just get there. So let'sgo into another section, another segment,
(15:15):
if you will, a little experimentwe're going to do. You know,
this got us thinking we're talking aboutBrooks. We got we started thinking about
all the other running shoe brands outthere vying for customer attention and dollars on
the market. Today we talked aboutBrooks here today. We've talked many times
about the marketing of Nike, butthere's a lot of other brands out there
(15:37):
catering to runners, specifically. You'vegot your Adidas New Balance. I'm gonna
just rattle off, you know,A there's probably many more besides what I'm
even saying here, Sakhani, Hoka, A six, Ultra, Puma On
under Armor, Newton, Mizuno,Salomon Rebok. I don't even know did
(16:00):
I say those? All? Right? So all these brands, some which
I pronounced well, some which Idid not. Using a completely unscientific and
mostly intuitive method of assessing momentum,Patrick, how would you rank the top
(16:21):
five buzziest running shoe brands in theNorth American market right now? So basically,
what brands do you think have themost mojo at the moment? And
I want you to rank them inorder, with number one being, you
know, the fastest sprinter who isflying around the track leading the pack,
(16:41):
and number five being like they're goingpretty quick, but they're not quite keeping
up with the leader. Okay,top five, I would say five would
be probably A six, Four mightbe Brooks. I would say probably three
would be Hoka, Two would beSocany. I think Socany is a really
popular running shoe bring. We're justtalking about running shoes, by the way,
(17:02):
And then I would say Nike wouldbe one. You know, I
feel like they're in the number onespot for most things. I think they're
still in there for running Okay,ah, that's this is interesting. So
I mine's a little different, butwith a lot of the same players represented.
So I've got at five, I'vegot On. At four, I've
(17:26):
got Nike, the big leader,but I feel like has fallen back a
little bit. At three, I'vegot Sokiny, At two, I've got
Hoka, and at one I've gotBrooks. Brooks been the best selling running
shoe brands since twenty twenty two.Twenty twenty two was a record breaking year
for them. Their annual revenue waslike one point two billion, which was
(17:48):
of six percent from the year beforethat. And you know this is all
obviously twenty one twenty two, bigpandemic years for running outside. So yeah,
maybe that had something to do withit. You know, I talked
about on that was kind of adifferentiator. That's another up and comer positions
itself as a disruptor. They havea cloud tech technology, which almost looks
(18:10):
like little pods, these hollow shellsin the bottom of their their souls.
Some people love them, you know, who run with them. It's kind
of become this hot, hot trendthough, the on On shoes. You'd
think it'd be tough name for SEO, but on Cloud seems to be doing
pretty well. Yeah, I wouldagree. I think on definitely has had
some interesting play. I would sayas of the last three to four years.
(18:37):
Maybe I don't know if they'd befive, but you know, maybe
I could see what you mean bybuzz, you know, like they've had
some a lot of buzz lately.They're to me, they're very like in
the same sort of and have thesame kind of momentum as Hoka. Yes,
yeah, exactly, And a lotof it is the uniqueness of the
shoes that has been talked about,you know, whether you want to call
(18:59):
them disruptors or whatever in the market. Hoka's probably been around at a little
bit longer any way, they justgo back to like two thousand and nine.
But it's amazing to me how popularthat has become and how you know,
like my dad wears hocas all thetime, and I feel like I
see people wearing them around just kindof like walking around in them, whereas
I almost look at them with alittle bit of skepticism. Are they're almost
(19:22):
like too new, And I'm like, I don't quite know if I can
trust them. That's a real problem. I think that the shoe companies have
to overcome. Like anything else inlife, you sometimes stick to what you
know. Case in point, Iwent to get a new version of my
shoe, Like I get the sameshoe every time, the same model.
So I wear Mazunos and they numberthem, you know, every year.
(19:45):
How long have you been doing this, sticking with the same shoe. I
mean I've been wearing them probably sincetwo thousand and nine ten. Maybe I
always go to the same place.It's a running shoe store. They had
a sale on Brooks. As amatter of fact, the Mizunos were more
expensive, and he was like,you want to try these are essentially just
like the model that you're getting inthe Mazunas, And I was like,
(20:07):
I don't know. I have areally hard time with it. I know
that they're cheaper. I would muchrather just stick with something that I know
works. And so I said no, to the Brooks. Because of that,
it makes me think about it withshoe brands, but it kind of
almost applies in any industry. Youhave your old and trusted, you know
brands, and then you have yournew innovators were changing the game. Last
(20:29):
question before we wrap here, Nike, we both had it on the list.
You had it higher than I did. Do you think they're falling down
a little bit in the running space? They used to be the top seller.
Obviously they've they've lost the crown alittle bit, but spread across all
sports, you know, all athletes, the big name in the game,
everybody knows associated with running from thebeginning. Yeah, do you think they've
(20:52):
lost a step a bit? Though? With all these competitors in the market,
I think the market's a little bitmore flooded than it probably was way
back when. Definitely, So Ithink that's true. They still seem like
they're innovating, They're still trying newthings. I mean, they still have
some shoes that they've come out within the past decade that have been big
game changers and have had a lotof people talking about them, like their
(21:15):
pegasust Line. They have the ZoomX, they have the you know,
so they've been coming out and beeninnovating in that space and getting a lot
of people talking about is this innovationtoo good that it gives people an advantage
that is unfair? Even so,I think there's something to that. So
(21:36):
I don't know, I wouldn't saylose a step. I would say they're
probably you know there, but thereis a little bit of that history that
gives them the old man in therunning pack. Yeah. I think it's
also it becomes tough to compete withsome of these companies who are just laser
focused on running, you know whenyou look at that as a runner,
you know, or in some ofthese people who are you know, have
(22:00):
these more niche focuses. You know, you see these companies who are just
like all we do is running,and then you have Nike, you know,
is the corporate overlord who does everythingand anything in sports and for athletes,
even if they're doing amazing things withrunning shoes. I don't know if
you look at them quite the samefor real. You know, I said
before, like any market, it'sit's tough to break into. So I
(22:25):
do appreciate though, when these thesenewcomers come in, like the hokah,
the on and try to you know, keep all the old timers on their
toes. Hopefully. Uh, theJeremy Renner marketing campaign does some good for
that brand, because I do thinkit's a very good initiative that they've put
out there with him. Feels veryauthentic. Yeah, it's an interesting to
(22:47):
watch. I'll be interested to seewhere they take the campaign from here.
Yeah. Well that's it for today'sepisode. Everyone. You can find current
and past episodes of this podcast,the Speaking Human Podcast at you know what
a website, and that website iscalled speakinghuman dot com. Very easy,
so simple. We'll be back intwo weeks with another episode of Speaking Human.
(23:11):
Catch it in Humans, Speaking Human
Speeding Human. Today on Speaking Human, we unlace ideas about the new Brooks
Let's run their campaign featuring Jeremy Rennerand Jog through our rankings of the buzziest
running shoe brands of the current moment. Speaking Human. Welcome to Speaking Human,
(00:31):
where we simplify the world of marketingfor humans. I'm Shad Calmly and
with me as my co host PatrickJebber. So, Patrick, do you
have any new next gen slang toshare with the listeners today? I do,
I dow but a wonderful surprise.Yeah, we've been trying to do
(00:52):
this next gen slang. I guessit's a little quick segment at the beginning
of the cast, and today Ithought I would share a fun one that
comes through the ranks of my ownhousehold. All right, So this is
the word chat ch at, asin hey chat. So this phrase originated
(01:18):
from Twitch streamers, the actual Twitchstreams, and the streamers would ask their
viewers their aka chat something, andit's now used by YouTubers and other streamers
more casually, but more importantly,it's used in everyday conversation now, which
is transferred over from the online worldto now people are just saying it when
(01:40):
they're talking to people in a group. You walk into a room and it's
your friends or just a group ofpeople, you say, hey, chat,
what's happening? The online examples thatthey used to, like a Twitch
streamer, for example, would say, hey chat, what do we think?
Like chat becomes the name of thegroup. Yeah, you address a
(02:00):
group of people as chat, right, And I was I was actually informed
that you you can't use it plural. It's not chats, it's chat.
It's a singular thing, like dear. Yeah. So one of these interesting
things, the evolution of something.You know where it begins, and then
you know it comes from this specificplace for example Twitch, then it kind
(02:24):
of makes its way into you know, every day of vernacular on these different
sites, and then you know,now we're using it outside in the in
the live world, people are liketalking and using this. Who knows ten
years, you know, people mightnot even know they're saying it where it
actually came from, or it'll disappearcompletely. We don't know what's going to
(02:46):
happen with a lot of these things. But the origins how these things seed
and catch on you just you couldnever predict it. Yeah, it's really
important to kind of stay up onthose because they do tend to sometimes make
their way into popular vocabulary. Thisone's also fun to just say to people
(03:07):
and throw them off, yeah asthey look at you strangely and wonder what
you're talking about, but may notsay anything, or they might say like,
what did you call me? Yeah? Leading in this is what would
have been said, Hey, chat, did you see what happened to Jeremy
Renner? So running from that segmentto the real topic of our show what
(03:30):
you alluded to there, Let's talkabout a new marketing effort from a brand.
I don't think we've ever discussed onthis show before. I could be
wrong. Show goes back a littlebit of ways. Now I can't,
you know, fact check everything.I can't listen to all those hours our
research assistance. You know, theyjust don't have the time to go through
(03:50):
every single episode. But I'm prettysure we've never mentioned this brand before,
at least they've never led a showor a segment of the show. That
brand is Brooks. We're going totalk about them today in a new marketing
campaign they just launched with the actorJeremy Renner. Do you want to give
us a little bit of background onthat campaign, Patrick, Yeah, so
(04:12):
about seventeen months ago, give ortake, depending on when you're listening to
this episode, doctors told Jeremy Rennerhe's an actor, the hurt Locker,
the Avengers, the town, thetown. That's right. So the doctors
told him that he'd be lucky towalk again after being critically injured in a
snow plowing accident. He was runover by his SnowCat, which sounds crazy.
(04:36):
I remember when we heard this newsand it was like, what happened?
Yeah, I mean, it wasreally freak accident. But today he's
not only walking again, but he'srunning. Hence the Brooks relationship to the
marketing story of today's episode, JeremyRenner featured in a new campaign for Brooks
(04:58):
called Let's Run. There. Theircampaign revolves around more than just him,
but he is one of probably iwould say, one of the center spokesmen
for the brand. Right now.Yeah, here's what they have said about
this Let's Run their campaign transforming tragedyinto a superpower. In twenty twenty three,
actor Jeremy Renner was in a horrificaccident. Against all odds, he
(05:20):
returned to running and transformed a lifethreatening event into a life affirming source of
inspiration. Watch him explore how adversitycan propel us toward our there whether a
new beginning, a dream, ora goal. So that's the premise around
their campaign. As they're following JeremyRenner and his rehabilitation, you know,
(05:44):
you get videos and a lot ofhis story as he gets back into running,
you know, even moving his body. If you go back into the
origins of this, Brooks you know, actually sent him a pair of shoes
while he was rehabilitating once they heardabout his story, and that's how this
relationship started. In this campaign takesthat the next step forward, following him,
using him as a source of inspirationand using that as kind of like
(06:10):
like you were talking about the thruxof this this campaign. So let's talk
about this campaign a little bit.Obviously this popped out to us a little
bit. Brooks a brand don't necessarilysee these high profile marketing campaigns on the
level of like you know, aNike or something like that, where they're
coming out all the time. They'rea little more under the radar. What
(06:31):
do you think makes this campaign unique? Patrick? What stands out about this
one to you. You know,when I sent this, I sent you
this real essentially that came in myInstagram and I was like, this is
really interesting, you know, thisidea of Jeremy Renner promoting Brooks this brand
because of the way in which theydid it. You know, it was
(06:55):
told first person from his point ofview. He gives a little bit of
backstory of what has happened to himand how he almost died. He didn't
think he was ever going to bea walk again, and sort of this
like inspirational story of him just perseveringthrough this, right, and this is
all in a real on Instagram,you know, and it's a very natural
extension of the brand because he's justtalking a very matter of factly like Tiki
(07:18):
mentions. They send him shoes andthey felt good on his feet when he
was trying to, you know,learn to walk again, and it felt
very natural and genuine, authentic even, which is what we always try to
strive for on social And he hasthis sort of charismatic, lightheartedness about his
whole accident, but it feels likehe's not really plugging the brand. It
(07:41):
feels like he's just kind of tellinghis story and that is what makes this
super unique. And it's a verypowerful testimonial about a person who went through
something that is horrific and his specialcircumstances that led him to come back from
almost certain death. Yeah, Imean, I think you hit it.
It has this organic, authentic feel. I know, we throw those words
(08:07):
around a lot, or they're getthrown around a lot in the marketing world
today, but this one actually hasit. It doesn't feel like marketing,
you know, when you're watching thisand when you kind of hear the story
how this partnership emerged from circumstance tosome extent, rather than you know,
hey, hey, let's make adeal. You're the perfect ambassador for our
brand. At least that's the storywe're being told anyway. And because it's
(08:31):
Brooks and Renner telling it to us, who are, you know, seem
more authentic and trustworthy than some otheryou know, celebrities and brands and some
other celebrity brand partnerships. It seemsto come from a real place. I
think it's notable that when you're talkingabout like a running brand or a running
athletic brand, Renner is not aprofessional athlete. You know, he might
(08:52):
be athletic, or he might havebeen athletic, he might have been a
runner, I don't really know,but that's not what he's known for.
And there's like this you know,every man quality to him. So what
he's basically doing now is just tryingto come back from an injury. You
know, the fact that he's evenable to walk, You're like, it's
amazing. I mean the guy hadlike thirty eight broken bones. They you
know, put steel and iron inhis body or whatever they had to do
(09:16):
to get him upright. I mean, he was basically seemed like he was
dead at the time this thing happened. And now you know, the fact
that he's doing what he's doing isjust impressive. So I think having him
as you know, the figure ofthis is something much different than what you
would typically get, which is like, you know, here's an athlete who's
achieving this highest level. You know, it's the runner who's breaking records or
(09:41):
you know, somebody who's doing somethingincredible. Here's a guy who's just trying
to come back from a horrific injury. And on the Brooks end, this
is not a brand that necessarily feelsoverexposed or overkilled, like a lot of
them. You know, if thiswas if this was Nike, would we
have a different reaction to it.Maybe because they've done a lot of these
(10:01):
inspirational things and they're so like goodat putting those together. But this is
Brooks's first new global campaign in twentyfive years, so this is not something
they really like are known for.They're just known as like this, here's
this solid brand that runners know,you know, and they kind of had
this this partnership they send people shoesand this thing happened as a result.
(10:24):
So it has that feel to it. And I don't know if that's real
or not, but it feels realand you know, his story, it's
inspirational. But what makes it realpowerful and unique to this is that he's
not an athlete, but coming backfrom an injury or being an average person
coming back from something or just tryingto get you know, closer to your
(10:46):
goal is relatable. Right. Youcan relate to that a little bit more
than you can the super athlete.Therefore, it's just got this quality to
it makes a huge impact when yousee it. In some ways, you
get you get your cake and youget to eat it too, and that
you have a star a well knownfigure, but yet he's not this you
(11:07):
know, unreachable. I'm never gonnabe like this guy. You're like merging
almost two different campaigns in a one. So do you think this is effective?
Do you think this campaign? Doyou think it's gonna get people to
know Brooks buy more shoes? Doyou think it's gonna have a positive result
for this brand? I do.Here's why I think it's effective. It's
the power of perspective. So thisad it gives you Jeremy Renner's perspective,
(11:33):
even if it's limited to looking througha small window into what happened to him.
And I say that because you know, this is like what you were
saying. This is what we're beingtold right, how he overcame the toughacads,
and how this brand is associated withthat small part of his recovery.
Part though, about perspective is thata story can leave out a lot of
(11:54):
the details, and you know,the viewer fills in the blanks. They
don't see the real hard shit.Somehow you make the connection that the shoes
were sort of what inspired him toget up and run more and do these
things. Did his shoes give himhope? Probably not, I mean maybe
they felt good, but in reallife, when you're in those moments the
(12:16):
shoes, you might be like,oh, these are comfortable, but your
incentives and your motivation is never reallytied to those things you know that you
have on your feet, maybe insome small way. And the perspective it
gives us as the audience is thatthese shoes had a much bigger role in
his recovery story than they really mighthave. And ladies and gentlemen, that's
marketing to make that stronger connection betweenthe brand and the testimonial. So I
(12:41):
think it's effective in that way.Yeah, now that's a really good point.
The way it's put together and theway you get this little glimpse you
look through this little keyhole into Renner'srecovery and his whole story. You make
Brooks into the hero of that story. Not that they push that, you
know, not that they need topush that. Your mind is just kind
(13:05):
of going there like, oh,this shoe helped him do this, not
that he's ever saying at any pointthough, I couldn't have done this without
this shoe, or if it wasNikes, There's no way I would have
ever done this. There's nothing likethat nothing like on the surface, you
know, it's what you read intothe story. Yeah, I mean that's
the power of marketing, right,is like you're just kind of giving a
(13:26):
sliver and you're telling the story,and the audience makes that connection and it's
like anything else, you know,you make it into something maybe a little
bit more powerful than what actually happened, and that's okay, you know,
no, no, And I thinkthat's kind of the genius of it.
I think for me, probably themost effective piece of it, I think
(13:46):
is what they did by establishing kindof almost the low stakes of this.
Again, it's not like get up, you can do it, you can
run a thousand miles today, it'sjust put on the shoes and walk,
you know, to see how faryou can go? Where can you get
to? I think this campaign,what they put together, has the potential
to like really expand the Brooks reacha little bit. I mean, this
(14:09):
is a straight up running shoe company. Nobody really wears Brooks first style.
They're mostly known by runners, youknow, but this campaign has the potential
to touch all the demographics. You'reold, you know, you're young,
you're non athletes. This is somethingthat might get your attention might inspire them
to, you know, slap onsome of the shoes, try to go
(14:31):
for a run, even if it'sjust a short one. Maybe even just
walk around. You know, youmight hear what he's saying, what he
kind of went through, and belike, yeah, I should just get
out there and do something, youknow. So I think his story is
that potent and the way they kindof put it out there, So I
love that about this. I thinkit's really got that potential to expand the
brand. And you know, aren'twe all looking just to be a little
(14:54):
bit more inspired And that's what thisdoes. It's an inspirational story and it
and it kind of makes you think, Wow, I don't really have a
lot to complain about. Look whathe did, he achieved all of this.
I've just been making excuses, youknow, I should definitely get up
and just get there. So let'sgo into another section, another segment,
(15:15):
if you will, a little experimentwe're going to do. You know,
this got us thinking we're talking aboutBrooks. We got we started thinking about
all the other running shoe brands outthere vying for customer attention and dollars on
the market. Today we talked aboutBrooks here today. We've talked many times
about the marketing of Nike, butthere's a lot of other brands out there
(15:37):
catering to runners, specifically. You'vegot your Adidas New Balance. I'm gonna
just rattle off, you know,A there's probably many more besides what I'm
even saying here, Sakhani, Hoka, A six, Ultra, Puma On
under Armor, Newton, Mizuno,Salomon Rebok. I don't even know did
(16:00):
I say those? All? Right? So all these brands, some which
I pronounced well, some which Idid not. Using a completely unscientific and
mostly intuitive method of assessing momentum,Patrick, how would you rank the top
(16:21):
five buzziest running shoe brands in theNorth American market right now? So basically,
what brands do you think have themost mojo at the moment? And
I want you to rank them inorder, with number one being, you
know, the fastest sprinter who isflying around the track leading the pack,
(16:41):
and number five being like they're goingpretty quick, but they're not quite keeping
up with the leader. Okay,top five, I would say five would
be probably A six, Four mightbe Brooks. I would say probably three
would be Hoka, Two would beSocany. I think Socany is a really
popular running shoe bring. We're justtalking about running shoes, by the way,
(17:02):
And then I would say Nike wouldbe one. You know, I
feel like they're in the number onespot for most things. I think they're
still in there for running Okay,ah, that's this is interesting. So
I mine's a little different, butwith a lot of the same players represented.
So I've got at five, I'vegot On. At four, I've
(17:26):
got Nike, the big leader,but I feel like has fallen back a
little bit. At three, I'vegot Sokiny, At two, I've got
Hoka, and at one I've gotBrooks. Brooks been the best selling running
shoe brands since twenty twenty two.Twenty twenty two was a record breaking year
for them. Their annual revenue waslike one point two billion, which was
(17:48):
of six percent from the year beforethat. And you know this is all
obviously twenty one twenty two, bigpandemic years for running outside. So yeah,
maybe that had something to do withit. You know, I talked
about on that was kind of adifferentiator. That's another up and comer positions
itself as a disruptor. They havea cloud tech technology, which almost looks
(18:10):
like little pods, these hollow shellsin the bottom of their their souls.
Some people love them, you know, who run with them. It's kind
of become this hot, hot trendthough, the on On shoes. You'd
think it'd be tough name for SEO, but on Cloud seems to be doing
pretty well. Yeah, I wouldagree. I think on definitely has had
some interesting play. I would sayas of the last three to four years.
(18:37):
Maybe I don't know if they'd befive, but you know, maybe
I could see what you mean bybuzz, you know, like they've had
some a lot of buzz lately.They're to me, they're very like in
the same sort of and have thesame kind of momentum as Hoka. Yes,
yeah, exactly, And a lotof it is the uniqueness of the
shoes that has been talked about,you know, whether you want to call
(18:59):
them disruptors or whatever in the market. Hoka's probably been around at a little
bit longer any way, they justgo back to like two thousand and nine.
But it's amazing to me how popularthat has become and how you know,
like my dad wears hocas all thetime, and I feel like I
see people wearing them around just kindof like walking around in them, whereas
I almost look at them with alittle bit of skepticism. Are they're almost
(19:22):
like too new, And I'm like, I don't quite know if I can
trust them. That's a real problem. I think that the shoe companies have
to overcome. Like anything else inlife, you sometimes stick to what you
know. Case in point, Iwent to get a new version of my
shoe, Like I get the sameshoe every time, the same model.
So I wear Mazunos and they numberthem, you know, every year.
(19:45):
How long have you been doing this, sticking with the same shoe. I
mean I've been wearing them probably sincetwo thousand and nine ten. Maybe I
always go to the same place.It's a running shoe store. They had
a sale on Brooks. As amatter of fact, the Mizunos were more
expensive, and he was like,you want to try these are essentially just
like the model that you're getting inthe Mazunas, And I was like,
(20:07):
I don't know. I have areally hard time with it. I know
that they're cheaper. I would muchrather just stick with something that I know
works. And so I said no, to the Brooks. Because of that,
it makes me think about it withshoe brands, but it kind of
almost applies in any industry. Youhave your old and trusted, you know
brands, and then you have yournew innovators were changing the game. Last
(20:29):
question before we wrap here, Nike, we both had it on the list.
You had it higher than I did. Do you think they're falling down
a little bit in the running space? They used to be the top seller.
Obviously they've they've lost the crown alittle bit, but spread across all
sports, you know, all athletes, the big name in the game,
everybody knows associated with running from thebeginning. Yeah, do you think they've
(20:52):
lost a step a bit? Though? With all these competitors in the market,
I think the market's a little bitmore flooded than it probably was way
back when. Definitely, So Ithink that's true. They still seem like
they're innovating, They're still trying newthings. I mean, they still have
some shoes that they've come out within the past decade that have been big
game changers and have had a lotof people talking about them, like their
(21:15):
pegasust Line. They have the ZoomX, they have the you know,
so they've been coming out and beeninnovating in that space and getting a lot
of people talking about is this innovationtoo good that it gives people an advantage
that is unfair? Even so,I think there's something to that. So
(21:36):
I don't know, I wouldn't saylose a step. I would say they're
probably you know there, but thereis a little bit of that history that
gives them the old man in therunning pack. Yeah. I think it's
also it becomes tough to compete withsome of these companies who are just laser
focused on running, you know whenyou look at that as a runner,
you know, or in some ofthese people who are you know, have
(22:00):
these more niche focuses. You know, you see these companies who are just
like all we do is running,and then you have Nike, you know,
is the corporate overlord who does everythingand anything in sports and for athletes,
even if they're doing amazing things withrunning shoes. I don't know if
you look at them quite the samefor real. You know, I said
before, like any market, it'sit's tough to break into. So I
(22:25):
do appreciate though, when these thesenewcomers come in, like the hokah,
the on and try to you know, keep all the old timers on their
toes. Hopefully. Uh, theJeremy Renner marketing campaign does some good for
that brand, because I do thinkit's a very good initiative that they've put
out there with him. Feels veryauthentic. Yeah, it's an interesting to
(22:47):
watch. I'll be interested to seewhere they take the campaign from here.
Yeah. Well that's it for today'sepisode. Everyone. You can find current
and past episodes of this podcast,the Speaking Human Podcast at you know what
a website, and that website iscalled speakinghuman dot com. Very easy,
so simple. We'll be back intwo weeks with another episode of Speaking Human.
(23:11):
Catch it in Humans, Speaking Human
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