Adidas has selected Montreal-based Mirum to develop and market a U.S. brand offshoot called Avenue A, a quarterly subscription service for women featuring products selected by what it describes as “trend-setting and fitness-conscious” curators.
Each quarterly box from the sports apparel giant features three to five “premium” items, curated by celebrities and released to Avenue A customers before they become widely available in-store. The boxes cost US$150 each.
“It’s a balance of fitness and fashion,” said Mirum CEO Mark Goodman of the new product, which is aimed at a group he described as “female urban athletes with a sense of fashion.”
Mirum created the Avenue A brand from the ground up including the name, logo and box design, as well as the digital experience. The WPP-owned agency also developed all of the marketing content including curator videos, photo sessions and social media outreach.
The agency team led by executive creative director Jon Finkelstein began developing the brand in the fall of 2015.
“It all started from a business platform, and from there all the pieces [coalesced] around it,” said Goodman. “Because we were involved from the earliest days of the business idea, we had an inside view of what it looked like so it just made sense to keep it all with one agency.”
Mirum’s marketing for Avenue A has been limited to social media, primarily utilizing channels that are Adidas-owned or earned, as well as the individual curators’ channels, said Goodman. “It’s really about a closed network of social media followers who are brand evangelists and advocates,” he said.
Avenue A’s summer box is curated by Morgan Brian, a midfielder with the U.S. women’s national soccer team. It features the adidas miCoach Fit Smart watch and high-end fitness apparel that is not revealed until subscribers open the box.
According to a 2015 article on FastCompany.com, there are as many as 10,000 subscription boxes on the market covering everything from sex toys to soap. The industry is valued at more than US$5 billion a year.
