After hours: Sports brand goes to extra time

Herzogenaurach, Germany – Sports shoe brand Puma’s new Social campaign salutes a different kind of sport and a different kind of sportsperson, extending the brand’s reach from fitness training into everyday fashion and lifestyle.

In a short video by New York creative agency Droga5, the brand toasts the ‘after-hours athletes’ who play table tennis, darts and table football in bars and clubs around the world. ‘The night, too, is for sport,’ a solemn narrator intones, ‘and they are the champions.’

Puma’s decision to reach out to the everyman and -woman of after-hours athletics rather than the star sportsperson exemplifies the speak human approach that brands should consider adopting in a Brandtocratic era.