Brooks Running is one of the rare legacy brands that can still lay claim to a challenger status. The company, which was founded more than a century ago, has in recent years eaten into the category share of bigger rivals like Nike through a community-led approach to marketing, tapping into surging post-pandemic interest in marathons and other racing events while preserving a focus on performance products that has long endeared it to the athletic elite.
Now, the Seattle, Washington-based marketer’s attention is turning more toward the international stage after delivering record growth in 2025. As part of a leadership restructuring in March, Brooks expanded the remit of CMO Melanie Allen, who’s been with the business for more than eight years, to better shape the global vision of Brooks and take on more responsibilities related to its retail experiences.
Last week, Brooks also launched a major new campaign starring “Wicked” actor Cynthia Erivo. “Shine Under Pressure” follows the multi-hyphenate talent as she trains for the London marathon while penning a poetic love letter to running. Along with featuring in video ads and social content, Erivo will guest on the “Nobody Asked Us” live podcast, which Brooks sponsors, during the London Marathon weekend and appear in future Brooks’ storytelling slated for the fall marathon season. Brooks Running Creative Lab and MBooth are behind “Shine Under Pressure.”
Working with Erivo — who, in addition to training for a personal-best 3:15 marathon time, is in the midst of a West End production of “Dracula” that sees her inhabit all 23 of the play’s roles — speaks to how Brooks continues to push against the grain of athletic apparel marketing. Marketing Dive spoke with Allen about how the Erivo partnership came together, her recent promotion and where she sees Brooks heading next.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: Erivo is an interesting pick for an athletic campaign. I think most people view her as being tied to the musical and arts worlds. How did you arrive at this partnership?
MELANIE ALLEN: The way Brooks approaches partnerships starts with that core authenticity. So shared values, real participation in the sport. Cynthia is an avid runner. She’s been running in our shoes for years. She’s somebody who’s so dedicated to her craft and running helps her become a better version of herself. That’s a lot of what our “Shine Under Pressure” campaign is about.
You mentioned she’s been wearing Brooks for a while. Was this a long-in-the-works project or did it just happen to be the right time?
We’ve known that she’s worn Brooks. Her teams also shared that along the way, looking to see if there was a time where our stories aligned. We did find out when we announced the partnership internally that the sales team had connected with her several years ago. We found out this was even longer in the making than what we had even thought, so it’s been a long time coming.
The creative has an inspirational, diaristic aspect to it. How did you settle on the concept?
Our team interviewed her, heard her story and shared back some concepts. She journals. It was a lot of her words and language that we were able to play back to her. She was part of that co-creation.
What’s Brooks’ historical presence at the London Marathon and why was it an important occasion for this campaign?
Over the last few years, we have started showing up at world marathon majors. We call it the Brooks Hyperion House. It’s a place where we have runners gather and learn about Brooks, but we also typically have panels, runs and other activities.
This year is our first year in London. Cynthia wanted to run London, so it gave us an opportunity to connect those pieces together. When we started talking to Cynthia, one of the key components for us is that we’re not just showing up on race day for her, but supporting her leading up to the marathon. So we’re giving her gear, but also the coaching during her marathon training. We connected her with one of our Brooks-sponsored professional marathoners, Erika Kemp. It is the lead up where we’ll start to share more content about the training and what Cynthia went through to get to that point.
How will that content come to life?
Mostly through social media. We’ll use social to share out that content, earned media and then we have direct media partnerships. The podcast is “Nobody Asked Us” with Des [Linden] and Kara [Goucher]. It’s a podcast that we sponsor. Des is a longstanding professional athlete of ours. It was a great connection point that they’ll be able to interview Cynthia. And then we’re looking at special limited merchandise inspired by Cynthia that would come out later in the year.
Are there any platforms that bear the brunt of the content?
Instagram is the main channel that worked for both of us in terms of being able to reach an audience and share out the type of content that we’re creating. It really is a look at how the training’s going and what things Cynthia’s learning as she goes through.
Are you trying to reach a set of consumers for Brooks?
Audience strategy is a key component. Cynthia has a really lovely, broad reach, but her commitment to the run is true. We often talk about a sub-elite runner. She’s already a 3:35 marathoner, which is incredible. Bringing more people that see Cynthia in a performance standpoint and introducing them to how the run helps her in more things in life — I think that’s where the story can connect with people.
The other thing I would say is a younger audience. That’s one key area for Brooks as well, and just a broader global audience, which Cynthia has.
You got a promotion of sorts recently, with expanded CMO responsibilities. How does that dovetail with aspects of this campaign, like it being a little more global? What else are you focused on as your role changes?
It’s definitely a broader global view and impact. We’ve had a few incredible celebrity partnerships, which have leaned a little bit more into the U.S. Cynthia was a first opportunity for us to really tap into the EMEA market. What I would say is her reach is global, which is fantastic.
The other piece is working on how the brand shows up across all of our channels. One of the things we’ve recently announced is starting to open some physical retail stores in key locations. My role is starting to look at how the brand shows up when we’re in an owned or a direct-to-consumer environment, which is something that we’re continuing to work on.
Moving into retail is an interesting skill to flex as a CMO. How do you feel about that?
For me, the view is: How do we want people to experience Brooks? Once they know about Brooks and get in the front door, see who we are and what we have to offer, my role is to help bring that to life.
Brooks has been around for a while, but has disrupted some of the established running players, including Nike. How do you view where Brooks sits within the category?
What’s great about Brooks is we are laser-focused on the run. That’s the only thing we do. It’s the only sport we’re in. That gives us a really strong focus on the consumer. About two years ago, we relaunched the brand under “Let’s Run There,” which was a big moment for us to evolve the brand. We’ve started to do some more work on purpose, and it’s all about awakening the runner in everyone.
We believe that we all were born as runners. We all ran at an early age, but somewhere along the way, we made it harder than just the traditional left foot, right foot. How do we awaken that and remind people that the run can make your day a bit better? That’s what’s unique about us and we’ve stayed really true to our positioning and our story for a long period of time.
Brooks has had a lot of activity recently, including local Super Bowl ads. Is your overall level of marketing increasing?
Definitely increasing. One of the big shifts over the last three years is investing more in brand. Brooks historically has been really great at product campaigns, to the point where we may be more known for the Ghost or the Glycerin [shoe lines] than for Brooks. We’ve done a lot more in upper funnel, including TV and live sports. We’re trying to be able to get more mass awareness and also partners. We partner with the Seattle Kraken, which is the NHL team here. We’re in our second year of that. In March, we also announced a partnership with the Seattle Mariners. That’s another moment of intersection.
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