Segmenting their audiences required a deeper understanding of customer behaviours and unique cultural nuances in places like the United States and Japan.
Local teams had their hypotheses about customers, but these had yet to be tested at scale, or aligned to a global targeting strategy.
This 5-year, longitudinal study allowed us to create a cohesive global media strategy for New Balance covering North America, Europe, and APAC.
Our team had a specific focus on Japan, detailing customer mindsets, media usage, purchase behaviours, technology adoption, and stories from the market.
In year three of the study the world changed significantly, with the global pandemic influencing new shifts in customer behaviour.
New Balance asked us to refocus the study, with a specific analysis of how “The Independents” see the world mid and post-pandemic.
This provided an opportunity to sharpen our research, with deeper observations into each local market, improved audience clustering, and the introduction of new data and media capabilities.
This ongoing program transformed New Balance globally, with better audience targeting leading to a substantial uplift in sales, media ROI, and customer engagement metrics. This relationship continues with New Balance and IPG Mediahub today.
Storytelling: Guides were created for global New Balance teams to help understand “The Independents”, bringing them closer to their customers.
