New Balance Takes a Walk on 'Sesame Street'
Eric Newman
Brandweek
May 12, 2008
New Balance this week teamed with popular educational
program Sesame Street for a co-branded collection of
children's shoes that will debut in July.
The athletic footwear and apparel company will launch
the collection across major retailers including Finish
Line, Foot Locker, Hibbett Sports and others, in
addition to its own stores.
With a premium price point—$43 for infant styles, $65
for grade school styles—the shoes will be backed by a
national campaign that includes TV spots during Sesame
Street, which airs three times a day in most major U.S.
markets. Print executions start running in July issues
of Cookie and Parenting. Within New Balance's own retail
network, themed street sign displays (carrying the
Sesame Street nameplate) will anchor the children's
section.
While the athletic company has been catering to children
for years, it needed to go after the category more
aggressively and create better brand awareness among
mothers. "We've always looked at the kids business as a
huge opportunity, and retailers have said as much to
us," said Christine Madigan, director of global
marketing and brand management at New Balance, Boston.
"For us to be successful with specialty athletic,
sporting goods and even our own store, we need to have
that full range of categories," Madigan added. "We
noticed that we did have high brand loyalty from the
moms [for themselves], but we didn't have high brand
awareness of our children's shoes."
The partnership, according to Madigan, is mutually
beneficial for both brands, offering Sesame Street
access to the specialty athletic retail segment while
providing New Balance with the TV show's name as an
anchor for its kids business.
Spending for the campaign was not revealed. Last year,
New Balance spent $13 million on U.S. advertising, plus
$7 million through the first quarter of this year,
excluding online, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
In addition, New Balance has a four-year, multimillion
dollar sponsorship agreement for the Sesame Street
program until 2010. The company is the exclusive
national sponsor of Sesame Workshop's traveling museum
exhibit, "Sesame Street Presents: The Body," which runs
through 2010.