Athleta has long been a proponent of women’s sports. The Gap Inc.-owned brand has routinely featured athletes such as Simone Biles and Allyson Felix as it embraces its “Power of She” brand platform. Now, with women’s sports finally dominating culture, including recent wins at the Olympic Games, Athleta is doubling down on its messaging.
Podcast: Marketer's Brief
Why Athleta’s ‘Power of She’ still resonates and what’s next for the Gap Inc. brand
CMO Ilona Aman discusses Athleta’s recent Olympics campaign and how it sets itself apart from rivals
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Athleta has long embraced female empowerment with its “Power of She” brand platform.
Credit:
Athleta
“The brand’s inception began with the mission to be in service of women and that mission has never rang more true,” said Ilona Aman, who joined Athleta as chief marketing officer in February after working at Fabletics.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Marketer’s Brief podcast, Aman added, “And so, as the rest of the world has caught up and started to see the value and the importance of propelling women forward as it pertains to sport and movement and movement culture, what’s been really great for Athleta is we’ve had the authority and the voice in that space for over 20 years.”
Athleta recently took its “Power of She” rallying cry to the Olympic Games, airing its first linear TV spot. Created in-house, the video showcased Biles and Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky. Aman noted that the timing was right to dip a toe into TV since so many viewers were tuning in to watch the Olympics live.
Indeed, some 30.6 million U.S. viewers on average watched the Paris Olympics each day, an 82% rise from the Tokyo Olympics, NBC Sports announced.
“When we think about the role that the Olympics really play in households this year especially, and the galvanizing power of bringing people together, it’s one of the only times that we really see people coming together to watch television in real time as opposed to only having a dependency on sort of their digital devices for updates or recaps,” said Aman.
On the podcast, she also talks about how different social media platforms resonate with different generations of shoppers, and the growing role of user-generated content in Athleta’s marketing mix. In addition, Aman discusses the back-to-school and holiday shopping season and how Athleta considers its sportswear competitors.
“At the end of the day, we’re not trying to be Lululemon, we’re not trying to be Nike and we’re not trying to be Vuori,” she said. “We feel confident about the role that we play in her life as Athleta.”
