In 2021, Under Armour wanted to inspire all female athletes during this unpredictable time to keep pushing through and continue working to be the best you can be. Our goal was to create a global long-form video series to drive brand consideration as the brand that motivates you and makes you better. This came to life in UA Body In Mind, a new video series that followed our host, boxer Patricia Domingo, as she worked to improve all aspects of her performance after departing from her professional boxing career from self talk and building routine, to prioritizing recovery and practicing mindfulness.
To bring UA Body In Mind to life there was a balance between minimal production crew, self-shot video, and digital creative. However, the initial plan did not reflect this. The UA Body In Mind series was truly welded by the journey.
At the earliest stage of execution, the team faced its first obstacle. After the exciting talent hunt for the main host of the video series, the athlete we had briefed in suddenly signed with another brand and we were back to square one. From this, we found Patricia Domingo. An athlete from Spain who was looking to redefine her ‘why’ after the decline of her dream to become a professional boxer. Under Armour saw a glowing opportunity to not only tell an authentic athlete journey, but a rare moment to help an athlete find their footing in a new community. Patricia had never worked with a brand before, had 5K followers on Instagram, and we couldn’t wait to help her find her way. We then leveraged some of our top UA athletes and influencers to help coach Patricia through.
The main challenge faced was connecting the athletes and trainers on a deeper level to create that strong athlete-to-coach bond. It became a key milestone within the production timeline to ensure the host of our series and the many guest trainers connected over Zoom multiple times before getting into the hard work ahead. Once we kickstarted production, Under Armour was under a strict “no-travel” policy. That’s where HECHO Studios came in. After many calls going over shoot-plans and expectations, HECHO put a small LA-based crew on the ground to film with Patricia. When the footage started rolling in, we hit our third and final obstacle. The creative just wasn’t bringing the heart behind the struggle we knew Patricia was giving her all towards. We were missing the stakes, the hard work, the progress, and the glorious payoff. In short, the edit of the first episode was completely scrapped.
Starting anew, we went back to the drawing board. Redefined our “why” much like Patricia and refocused. We then asked Patricia to start filming her own self-shot, hand-held video diaries. The story then suddenly came together with the crucial missing piece that was Patricia’s inner monologue and personal struggle. The execution of the UA Body In Mind series embodied our north star as a brand–to reignite the raw, gritty, and authentic spirit that makes our brand a beacon for all athletes around the world.
The results surpassed UA’s original objective. Not only did our host, Patricia Domingo, meet her goals but she gained valuable knowledge across all aspects of performance to be the best version of herself. Each episode of the campaign exceeded Under Armour’s YouTube benchmark performance with an average View Rate of 72%. It is also our top performing YouTube initiative to date. Search results showed a 62% lift for UA and a >2% lift in consideration. We are most proud to have our female followers call out the content as “authentic” and “real-talk”.
