NEW BALANCE LIKE A PRO

Creative Director | ZAK | Social Content, TikTok, Football

CHALLENGE

New Balance needed to connect with young football players on TikTok. The platform rewards participation, not broadcast. A brand that shows up with polished production and no utility gets ignored. The challenge was to create content that felt genuinely useful to players who were already there, already engaged, and had no particular reason to care about a boot brand.

INSIGHT

Young players on TikTok are not passive viewers. They are practitioners looking for an edge. Skill is the currency of football culture on social: the move, the technique, the bit of knowledge that gives you an advantage on the pitch. Like a Pro is not just a phrase. It is an aspiration every grassroots player already holds. A brand that helps them get there earns loyalty that advertising cannot buy.

SOLUTION

We developed Like a Pro as a content platform for New Balance Football, built around instructional skill content delivered by players who looked and sounded like the audience. Not professional athletes performing for a camera. Real players, real moves, real pitches. The format put something genuinely useful in the feed of every young player who watched it. New Balance moved from a brand that sold boots to a brand that helped players play better.

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