Social Media Monitoring Part 1: Under Armour

A Little Company Info

As stated in the "about us" section of their website, Under Armour was founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank, Under Armour is the originator of performance apparel - gear engineered to keep athletes cool, dry and light throughout the course of a game, practice or workout. 

The technology behind Under Armour's diverse product assortment for men, women and youth is complex, but the program for reaping the benefits is simple: wear HeatGear® when it's hot, ColdGear® when it's cold, and AllSeasonGear® between the extremes.

In August of this year, Under Armour launched their "Rule Yourself" campaign (created by the ad agency Droga5). The idea behind the campaign is that "you are the sum of all your training". The most notable thing about this campaign is that it features a list of high-profile athletes including NBA MVP Stephen Curry, American Ballet Theatre® Principal dancer Misty Copeland, two-time golf major champion Jordan Spieth and NFL MVP and Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady.

Here is the first video they released:

Below is Tom Brady's solo ad: 

Mission Statement

Under Armour’s mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation.

Social Media Tracking

After the announcement and release of the Rule Yourself campaign, people started to talk! But was it enough to keep their momentum going? 

In the chart from IceRocket below, you can see the major spike in blog posts on the day the campaign was released. However, it drops back down significantly in the weeks to follow.

In information from Social Mention, you can see that most people that talk about Under Armour (as a whole) speak positively of the brand.

←

In this other data chart from Social Mention, you can see that the strength (likelihood that it is being discussed on Social Media) of Rule Yourself is less, but the passion and sentiment is higher.
→

I believe these analytics show there is a positive reaction to Under Armour and the Rule Yourself campaign, specifically.

Under Armour's presence on Facebook seems to be an interactive one, though they could probably expand on that.
They seem very personable in their customer service responses:

They also have a very motivating presence. Just going through their social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) made me feel motivated to lace up the running shoes! And I really found fan comments and contributions to the conversation motivating. In my opinion, this shows they are hitting the right audience.

Despite the raise in talk around Under Armour on Social Media, the search interest of the brand actually seemed to decline after the campaign was initially announced. This Google Trends chart does show some potential for an increase in the future, though. 

After looking up Under Armour vs. Nike on IceRocket and Google Trends, my heart broke a little. Nike is in red in both graphs, Under Armour in blue. While the charts may be small and a little tough to read the words- you can tell at a glance that Nike surpasses Under Armour by a longshot. 

Don't feel too bad for UA, though! They've had a fairly steady increase in interest over the years which I'm sure will continue. 

I also am a firm believer that Under Armour is a very different brand than Nike. In my opinion, Nike tends to sell more "fashionable" items where UA has always seemed a more "athlete-style" brand. I've been wearing Under Armour clothing since I was on the 8th grade cross-country team and I never ever thought to purchase Nike running shoes or clothes to keep your warm during winter runs. I believe their Rule Yourself campaign portrays this well. 

Under Armour's $3 billion in annual global sales pales in comparison with Nike's $28 billion, but Under Armour is increasingly growing its share of the sector, recently overtaking Adidas to become the second-largest athletics brand in the US. -Business Insider

Conclusion

While there is no disputing that Under Armour has plenty of room to grow, I believe they are heading in the right track. They have mostly positive feedback and loyal customers. One retail item I believe they can improve on is their running (or any workout) shoes. It's hard to say what they can improve on within Social Media. The way they currently post and communicate seems to sit right with the appropriate audience. The Rule Yourself campaign certainly sends their message out while appealing to large audiences. I appreciate the way they post on Social Media, but they could possibly have a more personable presence (besides the customer service comments).

UA's loyal customers will always be the athletic person. No one is going out to buy Under Armour because it's "cute" and has fun patterns (coughNIKEcough). Perhaps UA's goal should be to stay UA and not lose itself by trying to appeal to everyone.