Yesterday Pentland Brands celebrated the outstanding work of its people at its annual Chair’s Awards, rewarding the teams who have helped pioneer brands that make life better.
Held at our London office, the annual awards highlighted the global teams behind some of our brands’ stand-out moments in 2022 – including Kickers’ entrance into the metaverse with its Roblox collaboration and Speedo’s Swim United initiative that’s helping more people learn to swim.
At the event, Chirag Patel, Pentland Brands CEO, congratulated the winning teams, and highlighted the empowering culture that aims to support our employees to be at their best.
“I’m incredibly proud of this business and the work we do to ensure that our people and our brands are making a difference, with so many inspiring examples from our global business in 2022. It’s been brilliant to celebrate with a few of our teams that are doing great work to grow our brands, create knock-out campaigns and make a tangible difference to the lives of our consumers.”
Here are some of the award-winning initiatives.
POSITIVE BUSINESS – SPEEDO SWIM UNITED AND 1 IN 4
Speedo took home the award for ‘doing the right thing’ for its Swim United initiative, which is helping children learn to swim and find joy in the water. With 1 in 4 UK children leaving school unable to swim, Speedo teamed up with Adam Peaty, Ellie Simmonds, Michael Gunning, The Black Swimming Association, Swim England and Active Black Country to affect change.
Stand-out result – Its Change.org petition is petitioning the UK Government to get more children swimming, gathering 51,000 signatures so far.
Canterbury of New Zealand’s ‘The World’s Toughest Activewear’ campaign for New Zealand consumers was recognised for elevating a different version of tough built on mental resilience. The moving campaign drew inspiration from the innate resilience of a Kiwi community, helping to drive brand awareness. The team was also congratulated for its ‘Back to Black’ Project, a multi-year project that’s helped grow the brand.
Stand-out result – Increased organic social media reach by 50% across Australia and New Zealand.
WINNING AT POINT OF PURCHASE – SPORT FASHION COMMERCIAL AND SHOPPER TEAM – WINNING WITH BERGHAUS ACROSS THE JD SPORT GROUP
The Sports Fashion Commercial and Shopper team worked with the Global Supply Planning, Demand Planning and the Customer Ops teams and Berghaus to put the brand in front of its consumers in places and ways that matter. This included at major fashion retailer JD Sports, with the outdoor brand seeing accelerated growth and sell-out ranges with the retail partner.
Stand-out result – Delivered 44% year-on-year growth
The team at Speedo North America was rewarded for their incredible resilience and innovative thinking in its distribution transformation project, ensuring the swimwear brand is equipped for a successful 2023.
PIONEERING MOMENT OF THE YEAR – KICKERS ENTERS THE METAVERSE
Kickers was awarded for its forward-thinking campaign when it stepped into the Metaverse for the first time. It partnered with Fashion Famous, one of the most popular games on the online gaming platform, Roblox, to create a fun, virtual experience for primary school children centred around its ‘back-to-school’ campaign.
Stand-out result –25 million product try-ons, 9 million footwear try-ons, 1.7 million catwalk plays.
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD – 20 YEARS OF DESIGN POOL
The event closed by honouring, Katie Greenyer, Creative Talent and Network Director, for her twenty-year commitment to championing creativity and innovation at Pentland Brands. Katie established Design Pool, our in-house design internship programme that develops the next generation of creatives, in 2002.
Stand-out result – Helped over 200 young creatives across four continents find career success, with 95 staying in various roles within our brands.
