Virgin Sport, a new Virgin Group business dedicated to bringing people together and making challenge fun, was announced this week. The group developed, in collaboration with AKQA, a new fitness experience created to move the world through sport.
AKQA partnered with Virgin Sport to invent the new active lifestyle company from core idea to launch. AKQA also created the Virgin Sport identity, tone of voice and a cohesive customer journey across all digital and physical channels including the festival of sport experience.
“It’s an honour to collaborate with Virgin Sport to make our communities stronger by bringing the power, purity and beauty of sport to millions of people around the world,” aid AKQA CEO Ajaz Ahmed, in a statement. “There’s nothing more blissful than the universal and inclusive feeling sport invites when we have progressed just that little bit further or faster together.”
Their mission is simple- to make fitness fun. They aim to do this by the events, Festivals of Sport, an event that will have something for everyone including athletes, new participants, family and friends.
In 2017, four festivals have been planned in the UK and US: Hackney (30 April), Westminster (9 July), San Francisco (14-15 October) and Oxford (TBD October).
A key part of the brand proposition is also giving back to kids sports programs in host festival communities, starting with Hackney. Registration for the Hackney event is now live. The events currently include a distance run, a more accessible shorter run and group fitness training. Active challenges are combined with local food, music, art and culture for a full festival experience.
AKQA will continue to work with Virgin Sport to expand to new festivals of sport and active lifestyle products in cities around the world.
Virgin Sport is co-located in New York City and London and led by CEO Mary Wittenberg, former President/CEO of New York Road Runners and Race Director for the New York City Marathon.
Wittenberg said: “We feel like we won the gold with AKQA as our brand identity and digital experience partner. CEO and founder Ajaz Ahmed and his team are one of a kind: strategic, energetic and entrepreneurial, with stunning design and customer experience. We are grateful to the AKQA team for their talents, insights, tireless work and constant focus on excellence. Ajaz’s recent book captures our sentiments about the opportunity in front of us to move the world thanks in large part to AKQA’s early and pivotal role: limitless.”
