Under Armour's I Will What I Want Social Media Monitoring Part One

Background

For the past two decades, Under Armour, has grown from a business running out of CEO Kevin Plank’s Grandmother’s basement (generating $17,000 in the first year) to a multi-billion dollar company (source).  

Despite these successes, prior to 2014 Under Armour was missing a key demographic: women. Specifically, In 2013, Under Armour had $2.3 billion in sales, yet only $500 million came from women’s apparel. Plank was ready to expand.  In an attempt to address this critical gap, in 2014 Under Armour launched the I Will What I Want campaign, which focused on defining what it means to be a female athlete (source).  The campaign builds off of Under Armour’s “ I WILL” mantra and celebrates the inner and outer strength of women (source).

A key element I Will What I Want is:  depicting real moments of will that each woman has faced in her life, capturing the grace and determination that defined each of them in their personal triumphs.  

The campaigned launched with a video of ballerina, Missy Copland: 

This powerful video went viral within the first week with 4 million views (source). In terms of social mention metrics, viewers spent an average of four minutes on the Under Armour website during the campaign’s peak (source).  As of this week (March 1, 2017) Missy's video has 10, 871, 116 views.  

Following the Missy Copeland advertisement, another key brand Ambassador of the I Will What I Want Campaign was Gisele Bunchen: 

Similar to the Missy Copeland video, the video of Gisele highlights the constant judgement she faces through projecting social media posts (both criticizing her and praising her) as she is working out. Her laser focus on her work out underscores internal strength and the ability to ignore noise.

Google Trends 

The google trends chart above highlights the large spike in Under Armour activity in 2014 when the I Will What I want Campaign was launched. Activity dropped significantly a year after the campaign was first released, however, it is still higher than activity in 2013, prior to when the campaign was launched. 

Social Mention

Saturday, February 25, 2017 

Sunday, February 26, 2017 

Monday, February 27, 2017.

The social mention graphics above indicate that overall, there is positive sentiment towards the Under Armour I will What I Want Campaign. Within the past week, the 58% strength on Saturday (2/25) stands out as high. In comparison to the noted 4 minutes average per mention that occurred in 2014 when the campaign was launched, as of February 27th, the average per mention was down to under a minute with, with an average of 43 seconds. 

Ice Rocket

Within the past month, Ice Rocket reveals that on average there was only a measly 3.83 posts about "I Will What I Want" per day. Notably, within the past month the Wednesday, February 12th had the highest number of posts which is unsurprising given that Wednesday and Sunday tend to be the days in which social media platforms have the most activity. 

Addict-o-Matic 

As the above Addict-o-Matic screen shot highlights, within the past week Under Armour's CEO Kevin Plank is getting flak for his support of Trump. In fact, Under Armour's main Ambassador for the I Will What I Want campaign, Missy Copeland, is publicly opposing Plank's support of Trump. Along with these aversive reactions to Plank's praise of Trump, headlines note "Under Armour's Disappointing Earnings" report. This reveals a correlation with Plank's support of Trump and declining sales. 

Twitter

At present, Under Armour Women's Twitter has 62.7K followers while Under Armour's main account has 833k followers. In comparison, competitors Nike have 4.32M followers, Adidas has 3.63M followers, and Lululemon has 1M followers. As Lululemon is a market Under Armours' "I Will What I Want" campaign is hoping to catch, they have a long way to go with only 62.7K in the UA women's page compared to Lululemon's 1 million followers.

Missy Copeland is still prominently featured in the campaign. While Under Armour's Twitter is featuring Missy, she has simataneously spoken out against Under Armour's support of Trump (as was demonstrated by the trending articles in the Addict-o-Matic shot above). This contrast creates a distrust in the marketing we see from Under Armour and takes away from the campaigns Authenticity.  

Instagram

Similar to Twitter, Under Armour Women is following behind their main competitors: Nike, Adidas and Lululemon. Nike has 69.6 M followers, Adidas has 17.5M followers and Lululemon has 1.9M followes. Under Armour's main Instagram has 3M followers.  

Facebook

Under Armour's main Facebook page has a total of 5, 655, 855 people that like it as of February 2017. This is a strong following, in comparison Lululemon, a competitor, has only 1,799,271 likes. There is also room for growth given that their competitors Adidas and Nike have 29,751,739 likes and 27, 646, 326 likes comparatively. 

Under Armour has created a separate page "Under Armour Women" where the "I  Will What I Want" campaign is prominently displayed, and that page has under a million likes, with 881,395 likes as of February 2017. With the push to attract more female customers, Under Armour was trying to get in edge on companies such as Lululemon and based on their Facebooks pages it looks like Under Armour still has some room for growth.

Under Armour displays good engagement, as an Under Armour representative responded to a consumers' question within 30 minutes. 

Recent posts on Under Armour's Facebook page reveal the frustration with Plank's support of Trump: 

Comments reflect that consumers are going elsewhere after learning that Plank supports Trump. Consumers have even started the hashtag #boycott Under Armour.  These comments echo NPD sports analyst Matt Powell's explanation that, “younger shoppers greatly consider the moral implications of where they spend their dollars.” He continues to explain that, “Millennials and Generation Z want brands and retailers to be transparent about their stands on social issues. If those values don't align with their views, they will take their business elsewhere” (source). 

Competitor Comparison: LuluLemon Facebook Page

Under Armour Women's Facebook page has room for growth and they could learn some tips from their competitor, Lululemon. For example, one thing Lululemon does well on their Facebook page is to talk to the groundswell through blog posts. In doing this, consumers can like, share, and comment on the topic. As Li & Bernoff (2011) point out, “blog reading is one of the most popular activities in the groundswell, with nearly one in three online Americans reading blogs" ( Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 19). Blogs are more conductive to conversation than pictures of products. 

Of course, Lululemon posts about their products as well, but at a glance even their responses to consumers fair better than the responses on Under Armour Women's Facebook page.  In the example above, the response time from Lululemon is 17 minutes (compared to 30 minutes in the previous Under Armour comment example). While this is not a huge difference, in general the quicker response time, the better. 

Lululemon's response also has much greater detail. For example, the social media representative (Dara) makes a human connection to the consumer by sharing "As an avid traveller myself, I totally understand your desire for barely there pieces to travel i for top-notch comfort." She also signs her name Dara to again give the interaction a more human element in comparison to the Under Armour response in which the name of the representative responding is never revealed. 

Reflections and Recommendations 

Under Armour’s message behind the I Will What I Want campaign is powerful which was evidence in part from the fruitful results following the campaign, including the 28% increase in women’s sales following the campaign.  The message of ignoring noise and finding internal strength clearly resonated with women. 

While the campaign message is strong, the recent actions of Under Armour’s CEO Kevin Plank, namely his praise of Trump, speak louder than words. To many consumers, the support of Trump (a misogynist who has repeated disrespected women on multiple levels) goes against everything the campaign represents. Going forward, Under Armour should build off of the strong message of the campaign while being mindful of the CEO’s support of Trump. Your brand is not what you say it is, it is what your consumers say it is. When consumers see leadership praising Trump, they have trouble believing the company truly cares about empowering women.