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BOSTON, March 24 /PRNewswire/ — - Campaign Captures Athletes’ Love/Hate Relationship With Running andBrand’s Promise to Increase the Love Global athletic leader New Balance debuts a new brand campaign on March 27, 2008 that highlights running as fundamental to all sport and spotlights the runner’s complex love/hate relationship with running. The campaign brings these struggles and personal breakthroughs to life by personifying running in a light-hearted and engaging manner and showcases the brand’s ability to increase the love of running through product innovation.”Running is our history and our reason for being,” says Rob DeMartini,CEO at New Balance. “We believe our ‘LOVE/hate. this is the new balance’campaign will strike an emotional chord with athletes. This campaign capturesthe complicated love/hate struggle of runners and shows how New Balance isdedicated to reducing the hate and growing the love of running throughinnovations in footwear, apparel and equipment.” The multi-media campaign utilizes television, print, and onlineadvertising to reach performance athletes with a primary media target of18-29 year olds. The full campaign tag line reads “LOVE/hate. this is the newbalance.”"New Balance understands that being a better runner makes you a betterathlete,” says Christine Madigan, Director of Global Marketing and BrandManagement at New Balance. “The LOVE/hate campaign is grounded in deep globalconsumer insights and inherent truths about the role of running in anathlete’s life and how our products can help tip the balance towards love.” While the campaign emphasizes the brand’s heritage in performancerunning, it also highlights New Balance’s expansion into other team sportssuch as football and baseball. The campaign targets three different consumers– the dedicated runner, the fitness runner and the competitive athlete –all who have different motivations but a shared struggle with running. The television campaign breaks nationally on March 27th in the U.S.during the NCAA basketball tournament on CBS and will have heavy emphasis inthe March-May and August-September timeframe through Fox, cable and ESPN. Thecampaign includes five television spots that capture the essence of therunner’s love/hate struggle. The cornerstone of the campaign is the “Anthem” spot which introduces thecomplex love/hate relationship with running and presents New Balance as thebrand that tips the balance in favor of love. The spot also introduces thebrand’s visual “red world” — representative of the runner’s struggle –filled with temptations and obstacles at the start but with an end result ofeuphoric accomplishment and “love.” The other four television spots highlight how the innovations of specificbrand products help alleviate relationship struggles related to differentrunners. “Party” and “Shower” acknowledge the social temptations and workoutfatigue of a competitive athlete while “Rain” and “Park Bench” showcase thededicated and fitness runner’s love/hate struggle with the elements and theircommitment, respectively. The campaign expands into multiple print components that capture thelove/hate struggle with running in relationship dialogue. Each ad relays howspecific New Balance footwear and apparel products help tip the balance forathletes in their love/hate struggle with running. For example, in the”Running’s Friend Rain” print ad, the copy highlights how the brand’s StormStriker Jacket can provide technical innovation to help a runner increasetheir love for running in the rain. The print campaign appears in vertical running/sports national andregional magazines starting in March including Runner’s World, Running Times,ESPN the Magazine and Running Network. Online campaign initiatives include banner ads and rich interactiveelements that communicate both brand and product messaging. Highlightsinclude a homepage flash unit that allows visitors to enter the world of loveand hate, while “Moments of Truth” demonstrates through animation thatrunning gives all athletes the competitive advantage. The online media buy inthe U.S. includes ESPN, SI.com, CBS Sports, active.com and Max Preps, amongothers. The brand’s Web site http://www.newbalance.com will feature the newcampaign starting on March 27th. The brand campaign will be integrated into New Balance events andsponsorships including Major League Lacrosse, Komen Race for the Cure, Rock n’ Roll Marathon Series and the Summer X Games, among others. Campaignimagery will also be showcased through point-of-purchase and product displaysat New Balance stores and retailers. The campaign launches in major international markets during the next 90days including: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, UK, France, Germany, Spain,Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Israel, South Africa, China, HongKong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The brand campaign creative was developed by BBDO New York who was namedNew Balance’s global creative agency of record in October 2007. BBDO New Yorkleads a roster of agencies that also includes Atmosphere BBDO (digitalmarketing), and PhD (media buying and planning). Almighty of Boston, MAmanages the NB.com creative. New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission:Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletesare proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proudto host. New Balance employs more than 2,800 people around the globe, and in2007 reported worldwide sales of US$1.63 billion. For more information pleasevisit http://www.newbalance.com. Web site: http://www.newbalance.comNew Balance

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