GEN Z STRATEGY & COLLAB MATCHMAKING FOR BROOKS

While competitors like On Running, New Balance, and Hoka achieved success by tapping into youth culture, Brooks remained conspicuously absent. Despite possessing an exceptional product beloved by the performance community, Brooks struggled with a coherent lifestyle strategy – or perhaps lacked one altogether.

I reached out blindly to Brooks' CMO on LinkedIn, with a specific focus on how Highsnobiety could assist Brooks in establishing relevance among Generation Z. What began as an unsolicited LinkedIn message evolved into a multi-year partnership.

Highsnobiety adapted Brook’s brand playbook for Gen Z, developed a comprehensive collaboration strategy & framework, as well as identified and facilitated four culture led brand collaborations. The culmination of these efforts will be seen as products from these partnerships make their way to shelves between 2024 and 2026.

Brand Translation: Strategy for Winning With Gen Z

  • Highsnobiety translated the Brooks Running master brand playbook for a Gen-Z audience; creating a sharper positioning for the next generation consumer, showing how Brooks Running turns up in culture.

    Brand Translation included:

    1. A north star (i.e., why we exist for the Gen-Z)

    2. A unique positioning (i.e., what’s our unique value in the Gen-Z life)

    3. A persona (i.e., who we’re reaching)

    Inputs included existing Brooks Running brand/positioning materials, HS proprietary IP and insights and Supplemental third-party research and analysis.

Collaboration Playbook

  • Highsnobiety created a collaboration playbook that encompassed all aspects of collab strategy and included a roadmap to take the Brooks' brand to a high-impact, cut-through collab moment.

    Contents of playbook included chapters on:

    1. Collaboration Purpose

    2. Territories

    3. Tiering Stragegy

    3. Proprietary Scoring Rubric

Collaboration Matchmaking

  • Highsnobiety engaged with Brooks to propose and solidify four (4) collaborative partners, skillfully managing negotiations for partnership terms.

    Concurrently, we crafted a comprehensive creative narrative encompassing each collaboration. This narrative extended to the development of a creative platform, creation of diverse formats and assets, establishment of a well-structured launch calendar, and identification of strategic content channels.