The name PUMA featured in giant letters on Wednesday, alongside the ‘Forever Faster’ slogan, at the MOB House hotel-restaurant complex in Saint-Ouen, northern Paris, where the German sport brand unveiled its communication plan and advertising campaign for 2024’s intense sporting summer. MOB House will also host Puma‘s headquarters between July 24 and August 11, during this summer’s Paris Olympics.

The event was the chance for Puma to give a foretaste of this summer’s Olympic Games mood. To bolster its communication efforts, the German brand gathered a posse of Olympic medallists and past and present athletics stars: Mondo Duplantis, world pole vault record holder, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Olympic high jump bronze medal, Mutaz Essa Barshim, joint Olympic champion in high jump, and Karsten Warholm, Olympic 400 m gold medallist, represented the current generation, alongside former Olympians like the UK’s Jonathan Edwards and Colin Jackson, and Renaud Lavillenie (pole vault), Sandrine Gruda (basketball) and Florent Manaudou (swimming) from France.

This gathering of champions was a clear indication of how far the world’s third-ranked sporting apparel and equipment brand (with a revenue of €8.6 billion in 2023) wants to go. CEO Arne Freundt presented Puma’s new campaign, featuring again the ‘Forever Faster’ slogan first used in 2014.

“It’s in our DNA. If you look at Puma’s 75-year history, [the slogan] encapsulates exactly who we are,” said Freundt, in charge since early 2023. “But we’ve associated it to a new concept, ‘See the game like we do’. It’s our way of telling athletes and consumers to adopt a new perspective in terms of sport and culture. In the end, this is a way of breaking new ground, and of winning with a different approach. The wording may change in future, but we will be sticking to it for the next two years.”

A statement of intent that underpins an advertising campaign that will soon be deployed globally and that, according to Puma, will be powered by the largest marketing investment in the group’s history. The campaign features athletes participating in the Paris Games, though Puma has also given it a global scope, incorporating some of the year’s other major sporting events, like the European men’s football championship, the Copa America, also in football, and the start of the NBA season at the end of the year. “For the first time, Puma has adopted a common message across the year and all our key categories, like football, running, basketball, and even handball. It has taken a huge effort by our marketing teams, for a campaign involving 13 athletes and eight different locations,” said Richard Teyssier, the former head of Puma France, who was appointed global brand and marketing director in 2023. “The campaign has different formats and durations, but we will also deploy it around major events,” he added. Another element of Puma’s advertising offensive is that the same bright orange colour will be featured for all product categories, a way to anchor the brand’s presence in this year’s various sporting domains.

Teyssier also said that the campaign will be deployed primarily via video clips, both on online platforms and social media, as well as relying on in-person events.

Marketing budget at 10% of revenue

On Wednesday, Maria Valdes, Puma’s chief product officer, presented the brand’s new elite running shoes and the kits that will be worn by the 17 national athletics federation the brand will outfit at the Olympics, but it was clear that Puma’s new communication strategy extends beyond the Games.

Freundt indicated that Puma’s marketing investment in 2024 will be equivalent to 10% of the group’s revenue. “It isn’t a higher share than before. However, since our revenue has grown, the budget is now much more significant. With the Olympics, it’s more a case of investing for the brand as a whole rather than for direct commercial benefits,” he said. “We actually don’t sell that many elite running shoes and athletics kit replicas. But given our social media power, we are able to reach different consumer types during this period,” he added.

The campaign’s impact will certainly be stronger in football, the sale of replica kits being a key revenue generator. And with the men’s European Championship being held in Germany in June, Puma is going all-in with football. “Our largest marketing investment is on football. The main budgets are for players and clubs. National teams take centre-stage only every two years, and there can be a lot of fluctuation in the [sale of replica kits]. But we don’t have a major national team in our ranks. Being kit supplier to a top-10 team is important. We have made headway in football, quadrupling our market share in Europe in the last six years. We’ve grown especially in France, a market where we’re currently ranked second, and we’re the kit supplier to Olympique Marseille, among others. We’re continuing to invest,” said Freundt.

Puma’s boss underlined that the brand has an inclusive, collective approach, and that it is also investing in other sport categories.

“We’re striding ahead in road running. For example, Vivian Cheruiyot finished third in the Paris Marathon. I believe that athletics is both an innovation hub and a credibility platform. A bit like F1 in motor racing. This is why we’re keen to have a strong presence [in athletics]. And in just six years, we’ve become the third basketball brand in the USA, starting from scratch. We think we have the opportunity to extend this success on a global scale, and to develop new [shoe models] with pro players. As you might imagine, [basketball] requires more significant investment that athletics. It’s currently the category with the second-largest marketing budget,” said Freundt.

These are Puma’s priorities, and they explain why, though the brand will be active with its athlete community this summer in Paris, it hasn’t opted for a retail splurge in the French capital, as other big names in sport have done. Nike, Adidas, and soon Salomon and On, have opened flagship stores on the Champs-Élysées, but Puma isn’t spending big on this front. Just before the Games, it will revamp its long-established central Paris store in boulevard Sébastopol, giving it more of a sport performance feel.