We have been running and training with our users for almost ten years. At Runtastic, we are as dynamic as people’s fitness journey, which is why we made a change: to strengthen our existing relationship with adidas. We wanted to create the best running and training experience by merging our combined areas of expertise. The Runtastic brand evolved into the adidas Runtastic brand. By bringing the Runtastic and adidas brands closer together we could offer a great, seamless user experience.
By refreshing the brand with a new look and feel, our relationship with adidas was made more prominent. Connecting and empowering athletes around the world with apps that reward runners and athletes with exclusive perks for being active was one of our goals. By doing that, we could increase individual motivation as well as global motivation. With the new adidas brand, we could reach more people worldwide and get them to become more active.
To create the best running and training experience, we decided to narrow our focus to the two core apps: the Runtastic app evolved into the adidas Running app and the Runtastic Results app evolved into the adidas Training app. The newly named adidas Running and adidas Training apps connect directly with the adidas membership program for added motivation to stay active. Now our products show that we’re a proud part of the adidas family and stand out in a fresh teal complemented by adidas’ traditional black and white design for a fresh look.
We ran a huge campaign in September and October 2019 to accompany users on the Runtastic rebranding journey. New training plans, inspiring videos, and blog posts were set up and executed in three phases: we are active, we are athletes, and we are adidas. The three phases were brought to life through user generated content and personal stories of our athletes.
In the we are active phase, we motivated users and tried to make it easier for them to start working out. We put together helpful tips and an overview of our current offers. We had a user activation called “Cheer me to Berlin” in the app, where we engaged users to get moving, and collect cheers for the chance to win an unforgettable trip to Berlin!
During the we are athletes phase, we emphasized that anyone can be an athlete. What matters is sticking with fitness goals with our guidance and enabling users to keep challenging themselves.
In the we are adidas phase, we officially announced to users that we are now adidas Runtastic. With a new logo, a new design, new app names – the whole package.
Known as the hub, we created a website to create a connection between each of the 3 phases and to provide users with information regarding the activations, challenges launched and what each phase meant for them. The main goal of the hub was to connect the phases visually and textually and give users a reference point and context for the entire rebranding campaign.
This massive campaign was carried out digitally on a global scale and locally with physical activations to engage local running communities like adidas Runners. Physical runs were arranged in communities worldwide that occurred around the day of the activation in cities in Mexico, Italy, USA, etc.
Digital activations were created to engage users throughout our rebranding journey. First, in the Cheer me to Berlin activation, we encouraged users to get the most cheers via the cheering feature in the adidas Running App to win a trip to Berlin for the weekend of the Marathon. Second, the “Hey, Run with Us” and “Thank You for Running with Us” challenges aimed to motivate users to get active and run with the app to win exclusive prizes. We also offered the opportunity to take the next step and start their training journey in the “Active & Energized” Training plan.
We also organized key offline events to engage our physical communities. The Runtastic Home Run occurred starting from various locations in Berlin to the adidas Runbase in Berlin. In the Berlin BMW Marathon Expo, we set up a sweat café encouraging people to do exercises in order to get snacks & drinks. We collaborated with Daybreaker to host the adidas Runtastic Daybreaker. The event included a morning dance party with special acts followed by an exciting 6.5 km run to stimulate our users and get them active. Around 3,000 participants and 200,000 spectators joined us for the activations in Berlin.
We saw a total of 1.5 million participants in our “Hey Run With Us”, “Thank You for Running with Us” challenges and special training plans. We reached 6 million users on our blog and were able to get a social media reach of around 50 million through our various channels. This campaign also resulted in the all time record of monthly active users in our app.
We successfully engaged users in our product and got great feedback from our users regarding our rebranding. While the new brand has exciting times ahead, one thing will not change: all the functions that motivate users around the world to run, train, and stay healthy will stay in the adidas Running and adidas Training apps. New features are being developed, because our top priority is still improving users’ fitness app experience and helping them reach their personal goals.
With the new design, the iconic Runtastic blue disappeared and gave way to a new, modern look and feel. The apps now shine in a fresh teal, accompanied by adidas’ powerful black and white as a neutral base. Along the way, design updates were made to improve readability and user friendliness. From now on, users will instantly recognize their favorite running and training apps by the adidas logo – the famous three stripes.
