Wilson Sporting Goods Launches New Brand Campaign

Source: Wilson Sporting Goods Co.

"My Wilson" Places Spotlight on the Powerful Relationship Athletes have with Their Equipment

CHICAGO, Sept. 8, 2015 -- Wilson Sporting Goods Co., announced today it has launched a new large-scale brand marketing campaign, called "My Wilson." The campaign is designed to cast the spotlight on the powerful relationship that exists between athletes and their equipment and the journeys and stories they create together. Wilson architected the campaign to create a conversation amongst youth athletes – across a wide range of sports – and celebrate the role their equipment plays in their lives as they pursue their personal ambitions in the sport they love to play.

"No other brand in the sporting goods industry has studied and understands the relationship a tennis player has with her racket, a quarterback with his football, a first basewoman with her glove, or a golfer with his driver, than Wilson," said Amy Weisenbach, Vice President, Marketing.  "This relationship is a true partnership that is intensely personal and where the sum is greater than any one of its parts.  Together, an athlete and his equipment chase dreams, celebrate personal achievements, face adversity, feel the sting of defeat, and rise to the occasion."  

The new "My Wilson" campaign is a 360-degree marketing effort, with a heavy emphasis on social and digital media. At the heart of the campaign is a video, called Nothing Without It, that features amateur athletes alongside some of the world's best professional athletes recounting the ups and downs of their journeys.  Wilson Advisory Staff Members featured in the video include many of the biggest names in sports today, including Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Dustin Pedroia, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Brendan Steele and Grigor Dimitrov. All of the youth athletes starring in the video are avid baseball, golf, tennis, basketball, soccer and football athletes.

"In developing this campaign, it was critically important that we show young and pro athletes side by side," added Weisenbach. "While many brands in the sporting world show moments of greatness, we wanted to show the shared 'moments of truth' that are a part of every athlete's story – the real highs and lows that are the common thread between the best in the world and those just starting out."

Athletes are invited to join the conversation by adding themselves to the My Wilson video. To participate, consumers can share a short video clip of themselves with their Wilson equipment and post it on their social channels using the hashtag #MyWilson. Wilson will aggregate this content and select consumer videos to insert into the video.  The newly "remixed" videos will be then shared across social and digital channels. Wilson will also share and celebrate the individual clips at www.wilson.com/mywilson and on the brand's various social channels.

Wilson has also partnered with Whistle Sports Network to develop exclusive content for the campaign as well.  Over the next three weeks, more than 20 Whistle Sports creators – across a wide variety of sports -- will share personal versions of the My Wilson video and challenge their communities to participate in the campaign. The creators will curate the best clips from their followers and share remixed versions of the video back out to their communities.

Additionally, between September 8 and December 31, 2015, Wilson will give $1.00 in new sports equipment*, up to a total of $250,000, for every original consumer video and photograph posted to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter tagged with the hashtag #MyWilson.  Wilson will give this equipment to national and community-based organizations that seek to provide young athletes with access to sports equipment and champion youth sports participation.  This equipment donation builds upon the Company's efforts to give-away sports equipment to a variety of youth sports programs through its partnerships with local and national non-profit groups, national sports leagues, and Wilson Advisory Staff foundations and philanthropic programs. 

"We share our athletes' love of the game and passion for sports, and we are committed to helping all athletes perform at their full potential," concluded Weisenbach.  "Our hope is that we can spark a dialogue with youth athletes everywhere about the shared experience of being an athlete and celebrate with them the role their Wilson equipment plays throughout their journey."

The "My Wilson" campaign was developed in partnership with Phenomenon, an integrated marketing agency based in Los Angeles, CA.

For complete details on the "My Wilson" campaign and full the Terms and Conditions, please visit www.wilson.com/mywilson.

About Wilson Sporting Goods, Co.
Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Co., a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of sports equipment, apparel and accessories. Wilson is a global leader in a variety of sports including, tennis, baseball, softball, football, golf, basketball, volleyball and soccer.  The Company uses player insights to develop products that push equipment innovation into new territories.Through the Company's dedication to creating products that enable athletes at every level to perform at their best, Wilson has earned its place as a leader in sporting goods for over a century. Visit www.wilson.com/mywilson for more information.