Our idea was earned PR driven, designed to create a disruptive story with reach and cultural meaning. Across Europe, we partnered with lifestyle influencers (outside of the sports & wellness space) to disrupt the Instagram influencer trend of extreme physical ‘before and after’ photos; by sharing images with no visible transformation.

The resulting public reaction created a story which spread across social and media channels, from primetime TV news to online and print feature articles. Highlighting the problem of body-obsessed exercise culture, reminding of the value of exercise for mental health – and ultimately repositioning ASICS in culture.

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.

Previous lack of awareness. On Mental Health Day in 2021, there were just over 2,000 pieces of media coverage showing how exercise helps the mind of which ASICS was referenced just ¼ of one percent.

ASICS dominates. The following year, the conversations on this topic grew by 2,573% to over 60,000 earned mentions of which ASICS were responsible for 91% of all content (despite core competitors massively outspending them). Significantly this went beyond traditional wellness outlets but into mainstream lifestyle titles across Europe such as Mail Online, Sky News, RTL, Brigitte, Stylist, Metro, Grazia, Elle. Message pull-through and positive sentiment were both at 100%.

Anger demanding action. Following the campaign, 68% of all earned media posts spoke about how angry they were with traditional before-and-after photos and called for change championing ASICS.

Sales increase directly linked to PR efforts. Purchase intent increased with the amount of products searched for and bought directly increased by 178% which perfectly correlated with the ASICS campaign showing that consumers aligned themselves and acted on brands that aligned with their beliefs.

Limited budget used unconventional influencers. ASICS doesn’t have the budget or reach of Nike, yet had to compete for mindshare. Instead of buying reach using sports celebrities, ASICS saturated coverage by using non-traditional influencers to get their message across leading to 250+ pieces of coverage across 20 markets mobilising new audiences with 1,000+ public #dramatictransformation mental health photos shared on Instagram. This proves that creativity and innovation drives success, even with limited resources.