ONE MORE+
GRASS ROOTS REBRANDING INITIATIVE
In May of 2007, I began an internal campaign to help New Balance realize the potential of emotional and effective branding.
I called the concept, "One More”.
In eight weeks, I was in front the CEO, the Board, and the Brand Team, and I had the standing support of seventy five people from design, development, engineering, sourcing, and marketing as we presented a collective shout to reevaluate the New Balance brand messaging.
In a few months, I conceptualized and implemented an internal, grass-roots rebranding movement that unified multiple divisions, provided employees a forum with the executives to discuss brand misrepresentation, and led to the 2007 rebranding of New Balance and the creation of the Associate Engagement program.
A GREAT BRAND WITH BAD BRANDING
In 2005-2007 New Balance had an internal and external brand issue. The New Balance product, culture, and people outshone the messaging that the brand was communicating.
The goal of the “One More” project was to educate the employees at New Balance about how positive branding can help a company and how an emotional connection from the consumer leads to loyalty.
This involved critiquing NB’s past branding messages, comparing them with other companies, and finally offering a possible solution: One More.
As a simple Designer II, I knew that I couldn’t simply walk into a room, lay out my opinion, and make a change. Something more needed to happen, and with the help of about 200+ people, something amazing did.
THE “ONE MORE” STORY
The New Balance brand was suffering from a lack of an emotional connection with its consumer. Everyone at the company seemed to recognize this except for the upper management and the Branding Team itself. The New Balance name, its people, and its products were being misrepresented by consistently poor branding campaigns that communicated self-righteousness, defensive posturing, or an odd selfishness that never allowed for a true emotional connection to the brand from the consumer.
It wasn’t uncommon to have discussions with different groups of people in different departments that all felt underserved by the brand messaging. There was a passionate internal belief in the company and an external love for it that was being mishandled by the brand team with surface-level, tech messaging and ads where they missed the emotional marks completely. “Fasten your sports bra” was one campaign that let many people to shrug and cringe.
In October 2006, I had an idea that I thought might help the New Balance brand. I toyed with it, played with it, set it to music in my head, gave up on it, worked on it some more, and then finally developed it into a presentation. Being a designer, I wasn’t given many chances to make my opinion on branding known, but in May of 2007, the Fitness Running marketing team created a unique opportunity for the design team present brand ideas to them. I had an audience that was willing to listen, so I spoke up.
STARTING SMALL
The presentations started out small. They began with only my group in the Fitness Running Category. After seeing the presentation, word of mouth brought emails and people to my desk asking to see it from other groups. I kept giving the presentation and I kept being asked by new people to see it--always by word of mouth, never by forced invitation. The presentation groups went from 12 people to 15 to 20 to 30. I had to switch rooms because some people were coming in and sitting on the floors. As the groups started growing, the types of employees started changing too. What started with Design and Development grew into presentations to Marketing, Merchandising, Sourcing, Finance, and the CAD team.
A COLLECTIVE SHOUT
I had apparently stumbled on something strong. The presentation itself was inspiring in its own way, but the amazing part was that I was giving people at the company a voice; I was giving them a forum to speak their ideas and feelings about the New Balance brand collectively. And it turned out that they all had the same message--the New Balance branding wasn't as effective as it could be and it needed to change. I realized that they were a combined voice excited enough with the idea, and mad enough about the past branding to speak up as one. What began as a whisper from me could turn into a collective shout from the entire company.
BUILDING A FAKE CAMPAIGN WITH MERCH
I figured that I had a small movement on my hands. I could take the momentum from the project to access the executives. If the shout was loud enough from us, they would have to listen....right? I decided that the shout might not be loud enough, so I started working on the second phase. In the evenings I created a small advertising campaign that consisted of:
- 16 2’x8’ posters
- 100 pole wraps
- 20 shoe displays
- 28 “One More” t-shirts paid for out of my own pocket.
The original idea was to plaster the whole office in this fake campaign, have everyone that supported the idea to put on a shirt, let me take their photo, and send the new CEO, Rob Demartini, a kind of visual petition of everyone that supported the idea. The goal was to become so loud and so unavoidable that we couldn‘t be ignored...but something better happened...
GAME FACE — Wed. June 13, 2007
The shirts had come in, and I had begun taking photos of people wearing them to build the visual petition. I had already given the presentation once that day, and I was scheduled to give it three more times (in 3 weeks I had given is almost 21 times), but I received a phone call from a friend named Kai Marcucelli that said 6 magic words, “You got your game face on?”.
Rob, the CEO, had heard about the presentation from Kai and had agreed to see it. Would I be ready at 12 noon? Hell yes I would, and so would everyone else. I grabbed 6 interns and we decorated the whole office in 15 minutes, hanging the sixteen posters, putting up 100 flyers around every pole in the NB loft space, and decorating the display area. Using a few key people to help, I sent the word out that the CEO was coming to see the presentation, and if they had a shirt to wear it in support.
By the time Rob and Kai walked into the room, they had to walk through a gauntlet of “One More” ads, posters, and people. Rob sat down as 45 people poured into the room to support the idea; the energy was palpable as the lights went out and I began speaking...
A CEO LEADING BY LISTENING
Rob liked the presentation. A lot. He liked it enough to try and have his exact experience recreated for the Board and the C-Suite. Everything was to be kept the same, leave the advertisements up, have the people come in wearing the shirts, etc.. He even liked it enough to reimburse me for the personal expense I had made for the t-shirts. In fact, he supported the purchase of 50 more shirts..
The final presentation was given to the New Balance Board in a standing room only room of 75 people wearing the t-shirts, pouring out the door, representing Design, Development, Sales, Merchandising, Marketing, Finance, Sourcing, Administration, and Human Resources -- everyone there to speak as one.
OPENER
Before the presentation I wanted to provide a taste of what I was trying to do as well as work through a sound check. This was a very quickly made “ad” to highlight a more intense way to express the One More branding.
THE DECK
MY FIRST POWERPOINT
The One More deck was one of the first non-design decks I’d ever built in powerpoint, but I needed a quick way to capture my thoughts on emotional brand creation and how it works (or doesn’t).
The deck walks the audience through the concept of how we shouldn’t be worried about Nike when we haven’t even found our own identity. It speak to the components of a brand but more importantly how a good brand is almost a religion with evangelists who preach to users and customers and help them believe. The deck highlights the current New Balance brand associations at the time (sole tech and wide shoes and lawnmower shoes), and then helps convey what good branding is and why it works and how it connects to the customer at an emotional level.
After giving the presentation in the deck, it felt necessary to create an actual campaign, so I built one around the concept of “One More”, and used that as not my suggestion or my idea, but just as an example of what good branding at new Balance could be. I needed the audience to know that I was only coming up with something as an example and that it was done in a matter of weeks. The goal of the presentation was to align people around building better branding not building my branding.
Looking back, this is a sophomoric approach, but I was just a designer only two years into footwear building a presentation that maybe no one would see and with little guidance from anyone in marketing or branding. There are things I would change now, but this deck, combined with the performance, was perfect.
THE PERFORMANCE
(you can play the video, and scroll the script while the video plays)
Yes, I set it to music, but, I wanted you to really feel what I felt while I was thinking of this. I’m not in advertising of marketing, so bear with me.... And this is going to get dramatic, and it’s going to get passionate, but it’ll be okay….I promise…
So I started off with one very basic branding question, one that you’ve already seen, and that question is…(stall)
(HIT)
Who are we?
Are we a shoe company....?
Are we an apparel company?
a trail, a basketball, a walking company?
Well, the fact is that we are all of these things.
New Balance is, in essence, an Athletic Company.
We help build people into better Athletes,
And to be a better athlete you need to be better than other people, and when you run out of other people to be better than, there’s still one person left…and that is, of course…
(HIT)
Yourself.
So…we have all of these athletes competing with themselves and others to be better, and they set goals for themselves.
And it’s my belief that inherent in every goal lies the concept of just One More.
One More is that moment when you need just one more mile, or just one more block, or one more second or one more step before you’ve reached your goal. And this works for everyone.
(HIT)
From the people running trails (pic)
to the people training for a marathon (pic)
to the people playing sports (pic)
to the people doing yoga (pic)
to the guy in rehab that needs to take five steps that day (pic)
it eventually comes down to just one more step
(Transition)
And these people mentally visualize and countdown these goals in their heads;
Whether it’s miles or blocks or seconds or shots.
They eventually come down to One More
And they cross over that point, reach zero and they’re finished.
(Pause)
And that’s great, we’re happy when people meet their goals,
but this isn’t where we live because
this isn’t where inspiration lives
New Balance needs to live BEYOND that zero point.
And I’m talking about the moment when someone has gone from
100 miles,
to 10 miles
to 1 mile
to 1 block
to 1 step
And…they look deep inside themselves, and they dig and they push
And they realize that they have got
(HIT)
MORE inside of them than they ever thought they had.
They are indomitable in spirit and in physical ability…
They are faster, they are stronger, and they are better.
And that count down to zero has now become a count up...
+1, +2, +Infinite
And this is where we brand ourselves
Because this is where inspiration lives
At New Balance we make people better than they ever thought they could be.
And people will believe in our our technology, our people, and our brand because we will send out a message to the world that at New Balance, we believe that you have
(HIT) MORE
than just one more.
THE IMPACT
One More led to a restructuring of the brand team at New Balance as well as a deep endeavor to reevaluate and rebrand the company on an emotional level.
While New Balance never used “One More” as a brand campaign, the eventual messaging was much more emotionally centered and attempted to reach the consumer at a deeper level to challenge and inspire.
I’ve been told that some employees still wear their “One More” shirts even today (2025).
SPECIAL THANKS
Thanks go out to everyone at New Balance for making One More happen. It was truly a combined effort. Nothing would have been possible without your support.
Special thanks go out to:
SCOTT RIGOLINI
Thanks for being there for me and with me through the entire thing, and thanks for listening to the presentation enough times that I’m sure you could give it yourself by now.
DAVID CIN & BRIAN BEST
Thanks for all of your passion and for giving me the strength to give the presentation the first time.
BERNARD JANKOWSKI
Thanks for the 3D support and the flames for the intro. You’re my Maya hero.
KAI MARCELLI
Thank you for supporting me and speaking up to Rob. Without you, I don't think I would have had the foot in the door opportunity that I was desperately looking for.
JON GRONDIN & CHRIS MILLER
Thanks for representing the China branch of One More and for helping spread the idea around.
ALLISON
Thanks for being there through the whole thing, listening to me, coaching me, and propping me up when I felt too weak and too small to speak up.