Illuminating a Teen Audience

The Challenge

Helping a major athletic brand uncover ways of more meaningfully connecting with two core teen segments by better understanding how they differentiated from their adult counterparts.

Keeping up with each generation can easily be a full-time job in and of itself (we know, we love it!) – attitudes, needs, behaviors, and technology can (and do) literally change overnight, and illuminating a teen audience can be especially complicated. On the heels of a quantitative study, this athletic brand came to The Sound to humanize that data and illuminate its core segment. They also were looking for guidance on how to build stronger affinity for the brand and establish guardrails for how to best anticipate and respond to brand affinity drop-off among this cohort. Recognizing the vast potential of this segment, a detailed illumination was critical.

The Approach

We took a global approach and met these Youth and Teen segments on their home turf – in the US and China. We met them on the pitch, gridiron, courts and gyms to understand everything about what life as this segment is like – and the brands that help them on this journey.

We then went in-home to celebrate their trophy cases, investigate their closets and overall: get a deep understanding of the brands, apparel and equipment powering their journey.

The Impact

Our findings helped the brand understand the dimension and complexity of this cohort and provided guiding principles and guardrails for Youth and Teens moving forward. This work was instrumental in inspiring the client’s cross-functional teams to more meaningfully activate against and connect with this valuable cohort moving forward.