Hoka Unveils Murmuration, the Latest Iteration of Its Fly Human Fly Campaign
Hoka is not satisfied with just cracking the $1 billion sales mark. The footwear brand has set its sights on doubling its business, a milestone the chief executive officer of its parent company, Deckers Brands, projected would happen “pretty soon.”
Toward that end, Hoka is unveiling a new global brand campaign on Thursday called Murmuration — an extension of its Fly Human Fly initiative that launched last year.
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This year’s edition features a 60-second film codirected by Ian Pons Jewell and Leigh Powis that features Hoka-sponsored elite athletes Jan Frodeno and Adelle Tracey. In the film, the athletes explore the concept of a murmuration, or the shape-shifting that occurs when a large flock of birds fly together in a coordinated pattern.
“We are so proud to share Murmuration with the world,” said Erika Gabrielli Sr., director of global integrated marketing at Hoka. “The campaign underscores the brand’s belief in the transformational power of movement, celebrates community and reads as a love letter to Hoka fans around the world.”
Later this year, Hoka will release two more films, the first of which, Keep Up, will be centered around the launch of the Mach X, the newest update of one of its popular running shoes. The third and final film, Fun by Nature, will help promote the Anacapa 2 GTX, an earth-friendly hiking boot.
The films will run on television, digital retail, owned media, out-of-home and paid social on Meta, Snapchat and TikTok.
To promote the campaign Hoka is inviting regional running clubs from around the U.S. to join the company on group runs. The first will take place on Thursday at the company’s 3,400-square-foot flagship at 555 Fifth Avenue in New York and will be a scavenger hunt.
In addition to the campaign, Hoka is donating $100,000 to Achilles International, a group that encourages people with disabilities to participate in athletics.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Hoka saw sales jump 40.3 percent to $397.7 million from $283.5 million in the same period last year. For the full year, net sales at Hoka were up 58.5 percent to $1.41 billion, compared with $891.6 million the prior year.
Hoka One One — pronounced O-nay O-nay, a Maori phrase that means “fly over the earth” — was founded in 2009 by Nicolas “Nico” Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard, two French ultra-runners who were unhappy with the options available at that time in the running shoe market and searching for an alternative that would help them run downhill comfortably after racing up mountains. It was acquired by Deckers in 2013.
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