Strava has evolved to be a fitness social network for athletes, shaped by athletes and what they do.

At a time when the nature of social networks has become troubled, sometimes toxic, there’s something beautifully simple in the alternative that Strava offers.

We tapped into this insight to shape a new positioning for Strava: Athletes Unfiltered.

If other online communities feel too anxious, self-conscious or outright fictional, Strava is unapologetically facts. A constant flow of achievements and failures, epic and mundane, glorious and flawed. Strava welcomes anyone who’ll break a sweat, and share the data points of their athletic journey.

We launched with a film series that cast athletes from North America and Europe - from novice to pro - finding the unfiltered truths that connected them across lines of sport and ability. The bones of a script came together fast: quiet moments of self-doubt, strange tan lines and blisters that told private stories, four-letter screams of success.

The final films celebrated this imperfect reality of sport - and the liberation of not caring what people think.

The tone struck a chord with the community, with nearly 100K organic uses of #athletesunfiltered on Instagram. It also became a platform that the brand built on, launching an Athletes Unfiltered podcast series for athlete stories the following year.

Credits

Creative Director: Guy Bingley

Creative Director: Nick Bastian

VP Marketing: Gareth Nettleton

Brand Director: Ian Mathias

Directors: Mike Brett & Steve Jamison

Production Company: Archers Mark