News

M&C Saatchi creates trainable AI athlete to promote new Puma range

M&C Saatchi Melbourne’s latest work for Puma is Astro, an AI athlete who mimics real life athletes and was created to promote the brand’s new Hybrid range of clothing and footwear.

Astro, built in conjunction with Current Studios, is the product of technology that assesses people’s movements and becomes better at emulating those movements through that process. Puma athletes including AFL players Scott Pendlebury, Sydney Stack, and Katie Brennan, and netballer Renae Ingles star in the ads, moving in various ways to teach Astro how to move with them.

“The Puma Hybrid is a cross-trainer for people who don’t train one way. They’re unexpected in where and how they work out,” M&C Saatchi Melbourne’s executive creative director, Emma Robbins, said.

“We wanted to create an unexpected idea that celebrated that. So we made ASTRO. As he grows and evolves, so does the idea. He looks pretty sharp in the shoes too.”

According to Current Studios’ vice president of creative technology, Steve Martel, Astro is “the most complicated physical AI experience ever produced”.

“Users can train ASTRO in a variety of disciplines including power, agility and strength. The more people who train ASTRO, and the better their form, the better ASTRO will become,” he said.

The AI athlete is designed to continue evolving with each session, until it masters each and every movement.

“Puma has always had a strong focus on training and the Hybrid product has been specifically designed for a generation that wants to train, however, wherever and whenever they want. ASTRO brilliantly brings this proposition to life,” Puma’s head of marketing,Oceania Neysa Goh, said.

Puma ambassadors and customers trained Astro during live activations at Chadstone Shopping Centre, and the AI athlete is currently available to train on the Puma Hybrid website.

The campaign spans out of home, online, in-store, and social.

Credits:

PUMA
Head of Marketing – Oceania: Neysa Goh
Marketing Manager – Sport: Simon Hall

M&C SAATCHI
CCO: Cam Blackley
ECD: Emma Robbins
CD: Russel Fox
Head of Integrated Production: Gene Kingi
Designers: Jessica Ramsey, Richard Sellies
Account Director: Josh Eaton
Account Manager: Kara Blair
Producer: Tony Le
Strategist: Ryan Smith

PRODUCTION
Agency: Current Studios
Agency: Positive Ape

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