Analysis of the Approach to Online Advertising of Leading Sportswear Brands

Brands like Nike or Adidas are predominant in almost every country. One of the keys of their success is due to the investment in advertisement and to their different strategies of promotion. This research analyzed 117 ads of five important sports brands (Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, and Converse) with the higher number of views in YouTube. Within the numerous variables, the study of the main important characters, the duration of the advertising, the year or decade of creation, the presence of violence, the context or environment where they were developed, the gender that is predominant (masculine or feminine), or the character's age stand out. The results showed that women still have a secondary role in sport advertisement and that younger and celebrities have the leading role, especially in the football scope, in the majority of the observed videos. It is concluded that brands are increasingly stand up for the feminine public and gradually are spreading out in the search of new market niches in order to keep innovation in promoting youth trends with this sport brands as promoters.