ON Running reminds us of "Soft Wins" - A new approach to sports advertising

The new ON Campaign brings a new angle into sports advertising which is traditionally ruled by performance-driven “no pain not gain” statements and themes like discipline, hard work and an innate need to win.

Nike has been at the forefront of sports advertising championing this kind of mentality since the 1988 “Just do it” slogan was launched. Last year, during the Olympics, they took it a little further with the “Winning isn’t for everybody” campaign that features rather aggressive taglines like “My Dreams is to end theirs.”

© Nike Inc.

Fast forward to 2025 when the Swiss brand ON launched a completely new approach in sports advertising with the “Soft Wins” campaign and the tagline “don't be so hard on yourself. There are more ways to win.”

© On Running

In contrast to Nike, ON’s campaign feels easy and fresh and brings the fun of sports back into the conversation. A nice twist after years of sports advertisers telling consumers they do not work hard enough, they do not sweat enough, they do not want it enough. At a time when consumers demand brands that stand for something, ON Running delivers on brand values and comes to challenge the popular hustle mentality of sports advertising while also keeping some of the classic ingredients of a great sports marketing campaign: 

Athlete endorsements

Giving it legitimacy they brought in TEAM USA Olympic middle-distance runner and ON athlete Yared Nuguse talking about how soft wins go with a winner mentality. 

Hero product in focus

It’s not all branding. The “Soft Wins” campaign also features a hero product: the relaunch of the Cloudsurfer 2 running shoe. So Soft Wins is not just a brand value campaign but it goes very well with the new shoe line as it highlights the main feature “smoothest and most effortless-feeling runs yet.” making a quick association with the product that sticks. 

Viral factors  - ASMR

Using visual ASMR both highlights the main feature of the product and reiterates the “soft” from “soft wins” without actually saying it. Also it cleverly uses current social media trends & techniques giving the campaign a viral feature. 

Target group

With this campaign ON running seems to target recreational runners that do not have specific performance goals. On the surface it does not directly compete with Nike and other sports brands for the same performance-hungry consumer, even if some of the features of the highlighted product may be interesting for that target group as well. It seems that they focused more on the larger consumer base of occasional runners, people running for fun and to live a more healthy lifestyle. 

Research shows that people tend to keep practicing sports more if it also brings them joy. So making running fun again through creative advertising might also be a way to get non-consumers to start running (again) for the fun and community of it.

If On succeeds with this campaign we may see more runners running widely like Pheobe Buffay through Central Parc. I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it!