Under Armour TV Spot Maximizes Use Of Twitter, YouTube

Hester meets Deion Sanders at workout in Under Armour TV spot.Hester signing autographs at Sports Authority.July 19, 2009: Performance apparel and footwear company Under Armour is launching a national marketing campaign anchored by a TV spot that takes to a new level the integration of such social networking venues as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The effort, "Mission," handled in-house by Baltimore-based Under Armour, stars Devin Hester of the NFL's Chicago Bears and shows his routine in a 24-hour period seen from a hand-held-camera point of view. The spot breaks on ESPN during the 2009 ESPY Awards July 19, then will run across ESPN networks and on Versus. Print and Internet will support the campaign, which promotes Under Armour's “UA Fierce” football cleats.

In the 60-second spot, we see Hester attend to various chores in Chicago via a YouTube style of consumer-generated filmography, including workouts, social functions, playing EA Sports' Madden NFL 10 with friends and personal appearances such as signing autographs at The Sports Authority. As such, Hester is actual glimpsed in unique ways: in a mirror's reflection, on a Sports Authority billboard and as a graphic in the Madden 10 videogame. The spot incorporates other Under Armour athletes, including former NFL all-Pro Deion Sanders, who joins Hester at Under Armour’s High School Combine Series, a national program that exposes elite athletes to pro-style training and coaching techniques. The spot is set to the soundtrack of “On a Mission” by Q da Kid, who joins San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis for a cameo appearance.

Throughout, Hester expresses himself via onscreen snippets from his Twitter account and chats about his interactions as if connecting with friends on Facebook. "Whassup Chicago!" he tweets at the beginning of the spot. Then later, "UA Combine with Prime [Sanders]" and "Doin' work at Soldier [Field, home of the Bears]."

"Under Armour was built on the platform of providing advantages for athletes, and, through this commercial, we wanted to show how our new generation of speed cleats can make one of the fastest guys in the NFL one step faster," Steve Battista, Under Armour, brand svp, said in a statement.

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