Time, distance, calories.

Sports brands are masters of tracking the impact of exercise on your body – but none have reliably studied what happens to the mind.

ASICS disrupted the global exercise and wellness conversation, using data-led research and cutting-edge technology to show, rather than tell, how movement affects our minds – by dramatically stopping people in 21 countries from exercising to analyse cognitive and emotional metrics.

The findings uncovered exactly how exercise – or a lack thereof - impacts our mental state and successfully cemented ASICS as a vocal advocate of movement’s ability to uplift our minds.

Movement is key to our mental wellness. ASICS is built on this belief – their name an acronym of “Anima Sana in Corpore Sano” or “a Sound Mind in a Sound Body”.

In early 2022, following 2 years of pandemic-restrictions, the need for a return to movement was greater than ever. But in a UK market dominated by big sports brands simply telling people exercise is good for the mind, ASICS was failing to stand out. And the movement message had become so familiar, it was almost ignorable.

We need to tell a different, data-led story about the mental importance of movement.

Our objectives:

- Increase awareness of the connection between movement and mental health

- Inspire people to exercise for their mental health

- Increase perception of ASICS as mental wellness brand

To show the world the true mental importance of movement, ASICS became the first sports brand to sponsor athletes to stop moving, recording and visualising the negative impact of inactivity on their mind. Athletes of all abilities had their mental state tracked across a week of inactivity using custom-built AI facial scanning technology and EEG brain activity, turning the focus from racing bodies to racing minds.

The data was interpreted in real time using a custom programme, then their states of mind were translated into an atmospheric data visualisations by a real time visual artist - showing the world, for the first time, what racing minds actually look like. Inspiring movement everywhere.

Working with Professor Brendon Stubbs, a leading researcher in movement and the mind, ASICS designed a first-of-its-kind experiment collecting individually submitted data looking to measure core shifts in mental state, from positivity to confidence to focus - and to decipher just how long it would take to reverse the effects of inactivity.

Over 3 weeks data was gathered using ASICS developed ‘Mind Uplifter’ technology, which combined AI facial scanning data with a series of scientifically designed questions to form a State of Mind score built from 10 cognitive and emotional metrics.

We then used real-time feedback on general brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and body movement with the use of EEG headsets at different stages of the experiment; capturing each participant’s scores to track the negative effect that a week without exercise would have on the individual.

The data was processed in real time using a custom programme to receive the EEG data combining built-in 3D to simulate real-world and abstract objects and multi-projector outputs. Working with real time visual artist Ben Heim, we translated the participants’ state of mind recordings before, during, and after the experiment, into atmospheric data visualisations.

Each cognitive and emotional metric was tracked by a different colour with variations in form and speed representing the ‘racing mind’ - the more frantic the visual, the more their mind was racing. The visualisation was fed onto large LED screens displayed to participants in a powerful two-minute documentary film.

The film and stills of athlete’s racing minds were distributed to global news, sports and lifestyle media, along with the full scientific findings. We then made the data gathering tool ‘ASICS Mind Uplifter’ available for the public to track movement’s effects on their own minds.

After just one week without exercise, participants’ confidence levels dropped by 20%; positivity by 16% and overall mental energy levels slumped by 23%. Overall 'State-of-Mind' scores dropped from a high 68 when active to a mediocre 55 out of 100. The global data showed that only 15.09 minutes of exercise is needed to reverse the effects.

The data findings and film drove 777 pieces of coverage across 61 markets, with the film itself reaching over 100 million people. 70% of audiences who saw the film were motivated to move for their mental wellness.

The campaign directly led to ASICS being in YouGov’s top 10 Brand Movers in April 2022 and prompted a 440% increase in association between ASICS and mental well-being with +22ppt increase in share of mental well-being conversation amongst competitors (Nike, Adidas). People exposed to campaign were 210% more likely to purchase ASICS products than those unexposed.