Under Armour’s Ullrich on Turning Moments Into Movements

The confluence of a bitter presidential campaign, the reaction to the death of George Floyd and the pandemic pushed prominent brands to strongly pursue purpose-driven marketing as a defining strategy for 2020. 2020 was the year many brands, including Nike, Pepsico and P&G, developed funding, policy changes, advertising and more to address social injustices. Now, the work continues into 2021 and beyond, which begs the question: what exactly does it mean to be a purpose-led brand? And how do you do it? This week, Stacey Ullrich, head of global community impact and community affairs at Under Armour, sat down with Adweek executive editor Stephanie Paterik at the Brandweek Sports Marketing Summit to discuss how exactly Under Armour leads with purpose—and how other brands can, too. According to Ullrich, a brand’s purpose is not just to make money. “If your vision and your number one priority is about making money, eventually people will learn that's what you stand for and it will be hard to continue to go on that journey,” she said. Instead, a brand’s main purpose is to be a good social and global citizen. “Profit and purpose, when done right, can live together,” Ullrich added. “And those two really can be the foundation of how you grow a purpose-led organization.” There are times, however, when profit and purpose may seem at odds. But in those moments, brands with well-defined value propositions are able to make decisions based on what they stand for. “What the word ‘act’ in activism means to you is the number one thing you have to do,” she said. “And you have to be comfortable even when those values may not resonate across your entire consumer base.” Ullrich noted when brands act consistently with their values, consumers learn what they stand for and then hopefully respect those values even if they don’t share them. And because a company is made up of employees who are also its consumers, fostering a clear st. “You're not of the community, you're actually in the community,” Ullrich said. “And you really need to listen to what is needed … internally as well as externally and then understand what can you bring to the equation.” That means not just focusing on providing financial support to organizations in need, but figuring out how to create stronger communities by fully activating the entire organization. “There's so much more social capital and, frankly, technical expertise that sits within their organization. If they're not offering that to their partners, they're only reaching kind of the top of what is possible,” she added. “So I think internally, it's about building the case of this is your community, too, and asking what do you want to see?” ‘How do we take a moment and turn it into movement?’ One example is Under Armour’s ongoing Run to Vote initiative, which, until Nov. 3, sought to “increase voter turnout by putting as many voters on the playing field as we can.” But the effort continues and Ullrich noted the brand calls it an initiative instead of a campaign because “campaigns have a start and an end date.” “I think one of our focuses really is how do we take a moment and turn it into movement?” she said. “For us, the Run to Vote initiative is the foundation that we've built around the belief that we all have an opportunity to participate in civic engagement.” It included a bipartisan call-to-action for voter education and getting out the vote. But, Ullrich said, “That doesn't stop on Election Day … how are you voting every day? How are you getting involved in the things that you want to see improved in your community? And so it's not just showing up to vote at the polls, but it's also showing up every day.” This marks a shift from prior to the pandemic when the brand was “laser-focused on creating equitable opportunities for our young men and women … to participate and engage in sport.” The pandemic, however, revealed the risk of sport going away, so now Under Armour is looking at how to use technology to create community around that same purpose, as well as to address more urgent needs like food insecurity and the digital divide in education. “It's really opening the aperture to where are other spaces that right now; today, we can help try to close the gap, while continuing to support our larger aspirations,” she added. ‘I am the first person who will tell you that I hope I lose my job at some point’ At the end of the day, purpose-led brands seek to understand the conversation they’re stepping into and then activate the experience they have throughout their organizations. “It goes way beyond just writing a check, I will highlight,” Ullrich said. Instead, it requires the intellectual and social capital, too. “My hope is that brands feeling comfortable with using their voices and their proximity of power and influence continues to exist post-pandemic,” Ullrich said. “And, frankly … there has been this reckoning that companies don't know the answer, but they do have resources to participate in this solution and so my hope is that reckoning and those innovations … continue to allow us to really strengthen our communities in a sustainable way.” In fact, Ullrich added, “I am the first person who will tell you that I hope I lose my job at some point, and not because I did something wrong, but because we did everything right—and that this function is no longer needed in corporate America.” In addition, Ullrich said purpose-led brands should seek to “take moments when they're presented to us and really turn them into movements.” “While I wish we weren't in the middle of a pandemic, I do think this is an opportunity for all of us to really recognize where we are as a country and those opportunities that we have to come together and strengthen each other,” she added. Now, Ullrich expects the next frontier of purpose is ongoing engagement through activism to create sustainable change. “I think we see policies that are starting to change,” she said. “I think if we don't start with policy changes being a critical piece of the portfolio, we will not see the progress that we need. And so I think activism gives you that opportunity to drive that policy thread where it's needed.”

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Under Armour’s Stacey Ullrich on Turning Moments Into Movements at Purpose-Led Brands

Leading with purpose means activating the entire organization to create stronger communities

Lisa Lacy

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