Adapting to a cultural shift

This article first appeared in Sports Business Journal written by, Leo O’Mahony, Junior Strategist at Imagination London.

“Games Wide Open” is the motto of the Paris Olympics. This motto looks to evoke feelings of individuality, inclusivity and accessibility. Paris in 2024 is opening the entire city to everyone and showing that sport is available to all. This motto sits differently from the Olympics motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger, which was first said in 1881 by Dominican priest Henri Didon for a school event. It was adopted by Pierre de Coubertin for the Olympics 13 years later and is the Games’ motto to this day. This motto however evokes the image of the pursuit of athletic perfection, rather than anything alluding to inclusivity.

There is a cultural shift that we are seeing emerge where people are rejecting the perceived toxicity of modern life and hustle culture, instead embracing a “soft life.” The conventional markers of success such as a high-income career or home ownership come with too much stress and too little fulfillment for it all to be worth it. The team at Saatchi & Saatchi identified in their latest installment of “WTF Is Going On” that working hard now doesn’t deliver on the lifestyle promised -- home ownership is no longer a realistic ambition. “Soft life” presents an alternative: Living life a little slower and less intensely, where you reject work-centricity, taking your foot off the accelerator in favour of more balance.

This is further exemplified by the “Quiet Quitting” phenomenon that grew out of the pandemic, where rather than leaving a job, employees stop going above and beyond. The trend took hold among people who had become fed up with hustle culture, wanted to prioritise their work-life balance and detach their self-worth from their work-based accomplishments.

Nike boomed in the 1980s with messaging focused on espousing the benefits of the pursuit of perfection and became enormously successful. This type of messaging was taken up by other sports brands making sports marketing a hegemony of “Find Your Greatness”-like platforms: My Better Is Better Than Your Better, The Only Way is Through, Impossible is Nothing, There’s an Athlete in All of Us, Want it More, Forever Faster. This type of messaging is designed to inspire and make you want to get up, lace up and smash your personal best.

Exercise and sports are a part of people’s lives and not immune from people choosing to be a bit more average. Sports brands as a result have been one of the quickest categories to respond to this -- including the Olympics: The Olympics’ move from “Faster, Higher Stronger” to “Games Wide Open” is reflective of the cultural shift from toxicity and the relentless pursuit of greatness where your value is determined by your work ethic to a more “soft life” approach to sport.

The brands that might have typically been guilty of being too work ethic-centric have shifted too. Nike has launched Play New, a brand platform based around encouraging people to play and try new sports even if they might be bad at them. Decathlon’s new brand positioning -- Ready to Play -- “Invites everyone, everywhere to rediscover the joy of play. In a world where stress and perfectionism hold so many people back from enjoying sport.” Adidas launched a fantastic campaign this year with the message “what if we played like pressure didn’t exist?” where the creative concept was to create fantastical environments for players to rediscover the joy of sport again.

There is an opportunity for brands to redefine fandom by leaning into inclusivity and accessibility. Hoka and Gymshark are sports brands that are beginning to leverage running clubs. Meanwhile, Puresport’s growth as a new player in the market is largely driven by the success of its running clubs. Brands are using accessible, inclusive experiences as a way of tapping into consumers’ desires for community. This strategy helps brands create more connected fan bases. By offering experiences that prioritise joy and well-being, brands can connect more deeply and emotionally with their audiences.

Sports brands are responding to a cultural shift toward inclusivity, accessibility, and individuality and away from messaging centred on the relentless pursuit of perfection. Brands adapted to this cultural shift, using messaging that encourages participation over competition. By offering inclusive experiences, they can tap into consumers’ desires for connection and well-being. Paris 2024 and “Games Wide Open” exemplify this evolving landscape, redefining what it means to celebrate sport in the modern day.