Our idea was social and influencer driven. Across Europe, we partnered with lifestyle influencers - outside of the sports and wellness space - to cause controversy on social by disrupting the Instagram ‘fitness influencer’ trend of extreme physical ‘before and after’ photos. Sharing images with no visible transformation, we highlighted the invisible mental health transformation from movement.

The ensuing social reaction spread across media channels, starting a conversation about the mental health impact of social media content and the impact of social influencers. Ultimately highlighting the power of exercise to change how you feel – not just how you look.

ASICS stands for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano. Meaning ‘a Sound Mind in a Sound Body.’ In 2022, this connection between physical movement and mental health had become overshadowed by the cultural pressure to use exercise to change one’s appearance.

Social media is flooded with extreme ‘before and after’ transformation pictures – and the trend has a huge negative mental health impact on millions of average exercisers, with 53% of people feeling insecure about their bodies after seeing them, while 73% believe society's obsession with the perfect body is damaging our mental health.

We aimed to change the cultural exercise conversation, balancing the aesthetic and mental roles of exercise. Reminding the world just 15 mins and nine seconds of movement transforms one’s mind. Ultimately encouraging average exercisers to move for their mental health, while increasing ASICS’ share of voice around World Mental Health Day.

A small amount of exercise is incredibly powerful for mental wellbeing. Yet Instagram culture focuses on physical “Dramatic Transformations” as the only ‘valid’ image of exercise. In this culture, anything less is unworthy of celebration.

To change the narrative, we created the first series of ‘before and after’ exercise transformation photos to celebrate the dramatic mental—not physical—transformation from movement.

Across Europe, social influencers were photographed before and after 15 minutes and nine seconds of movement – the amount of time proven to uplift your mind. The images were then shared on social media, appearing to be the least-impressive influencer exercise transformations ever, igniting conversations and public mockery. We then revealed this was intentional - delivering our message “Not All Exercise Transformations Are Visible” as the world realised the images contained subtle differences reflecting the mental uplift; a slight smile, straighter posture, a gleam in the eye.

As a brand for the many, our audience is average exercisers aged 18–45. Heavily influenced by social media, ASICS research revealed 80% feel alienated from exercise by Instagram’s physical transformation photos.

With less than 1% share of voice, ASICS sought out a new strategy to reach these people with a more inclusive exercise message. Just promoting the positive mental effects of exercise wasn’t enough. To cut through, ASICS needed to directly fight the dramatic transformation photo trend.

These images dominate exercise culture because physical change is visually striking, whereas mental transformations are invisible.

But what if we used this invisibility to stand out?

Knowing body-obsessed Instagram audiences often criticize ‘before/afters’ they don’t consider impressive, we would use non-fitness influencers to proudly share #DramaticTransformation images with no obvious physical change. Provoking reactions which would highlight the problem, setting the scene for our key message: “not all exercise transformations are visible’.

Four days before World Mental Health Day, our influencers shared their images on Instagram, provoking a wave of reactions across Europe; from confusion (“you’ve done nothing, there’s no change?”) to abuse (“sick of seeing shit like this. No one wants to be fat – get off your lazy arse”).

Then, on World Mental Health Day, influencers revealed their posts true intention, as media channels reported on the negative social reaction and wellness impact of before/after images. ASICS had proven culture’s obsession with the perfect body was damaging our mental health.

As the news ignited social and media channels, ads featuring our influencers went live across digital fitness and lifestyle media – while OOH appeared in and around gyms; targeting the cultural “homes” of physical exercise transformations. Calling people to share their mental #dramatictransformation images on social media, changing the image of exercise from elitist muscles to inclusive mental health transformations.

In 2021, ASICS received only 0.25% of media coverage in relation to how exercise helps mental health.

The following year, ASICS dominated with 91% of all content related to the topic, despite being outspent by competitors.

The message was picked up by mainstream outlets such as Sky News, Metro, Grazia, and Elle, resulting in a 2,573% increase in earned mentions and reach of 543m.

The campaign sparked anger towards traditional before-and-after photos, with 68% of media posts calling for change and championing ASICS.

This led to a 178% increase in purchase intent, with consumers aligning themselves with a brand that shared their beliefs.

Despite a limited budget compared to Nike, ASICS used unconventional influencers to saturate coverage and reach audiences. This resulted in 250+ pieces of coverage across 20 markets and 1,000+ public #dramatictransformation mental health photos shared on Instagram, proving that creativity can drive success even with limited resources.

The social behaviour of people and celebrities sharing elitist physical exercise transformation pictures on social and lifestyle media was our inspiration.

These images are hard to escape – dominating exercise culture and portraying an image of exercise and progress that is unrealistic to the average exerciser. Fuelling the idea that their bodies and relationship with exercise are inadequate in the eyes of our aesthetics-obsessed society.

These average exercisers move to mentally feel better, not get sterotypically more attractive bodies – but ironically the current exercise culture and its resulting social behaviours are making their mental health worse.