Under Armour 2006 Annual Report Download - page 11

been and continues to be to find the next generation of stars, like Major League Baseball (“MLB”) player Jeff
Francoeur, 2006 MLB MVP Ryan Howard and national women’s figure skating champion Kimmie Meissner. In
addition to individual athletes, we sell our products domestically to professional football teams and Division I
men’s and women’s collegiate athletic teams, including many of the 117 Division I college football programs.
Internationally, we are selling our products to European soccer and rugby teams. We are an official supplier
of performance apparel to the Fulham Football Club of England and 1860 Munich of Germany’s Bundesliga,
among others. We believe these relationships create significant on-field product and brand exposure that
contributes to our on-field authenticity.
We seek to sponsor events to drive awareness and brand authenticity from a grassroots level. For example,
we are a sponsor of the ESPY Awards Show each July and have used the national platform to launch our fall
commercial campaigns, and we also sponsor ESPN’s Bassmasters Classic to reach hunting and fishing
enthusiasts. In keeping with our “next great athlete” strategy, we also sponsor events such as the College Football
All Star Challenge, which is broadcast nationally within Super Bowl programming and features the country’s top
players headed for the NFL. In addition, we are the title sponsor of The Under Armour (Baltimore) Marathon,
and we make a significant brand appearance at numerous other major races, and we are the title sponsor of The
Under Armour Lacrosse Classic. Over the past year, we established several new and important relationships,
including becoming the title sponsor of the Under Armour Senior Bowl, which is the annual competition between
the top seniors in college football; partnering with the Baseball Factory to outfit the nation’s top high school
baseball athletes from head-to-toe and serve as the title sponsor for nationally-recognized tournaments and teams;
and participating “on the mountain” at the ESPN Winter X Games where winter sport athletes, including skiers,
snowboarders, and snowmobilers, gather for events.
Media and Promotion
We feature our men’s and women’s products in a variety of national publications such as ESPN the
Magazine,Maxim,Shape, and People Magazine, and we also advertise regularly in several outdoor and sport-
specific publications.
Our signature “Protect this House” and “Click Clack” television campaigns feature several NFL players.
These campaigns run in a variety of lengths and formats, and our “Protect this House” campaign is used in
several NFL and collegiate stadiums during games as a crowd prompt. Our women’s campaign stars Heather
Mitts of the U.S. Olympic soccer team and runs on cable and network television. We developed our first
co-branded commercial in 2006 with retail partner Dick’s Sporting Goods to promote Under Armour around the
2006 holiday season. Our ability to secure product placement in movies, television shows and video games has
allowed us to reinforce our authenticity as well as establish our brand with broader audiences who may not have
been previously exposed to our advertising and brand efforts.
Retail Development and Product Presentation
The primary component of our retail brand strategy is to increase and brand the floor space dedicated to our
products. The design and funding of in-store fixtures, along with the more recent Under Armour concept shops,
within our major retail accounts is a key initiative for securing prime floor space, educating the consumer and
creating an exciting environment for the consumer to experience our brand. Under Armour concept shops
enhance our brand’s presentation within our major retail accounts with a shop-in-shop approach, using dedicated
floor space exclusively for our products, including flooring, lighting, walls, displays and images.
Across our many retailers, we use in-store fixtures and displays that highlight our logo and have a
performance-oriented, athletic look. We provide retailers with what we believe are exciting and unique brand-
building fixtures, such as our “Big E” mannequin, a life size mold of Eric Ogbogu, a 6’4”, 275 pound former
NFL defensive end, and the featured athlete in our award-winning “Protect This House” campaign. To target
women consumers, we use a complementary mannequin, the UA WOMAN, modeled after the star of our
women’s campaign, Heather Mitts. These displays provide an easily identifiable place for consumers to look for
our products and are intended to reinforce the message that our brand is distinct from our competitors.
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