Under Armour Taps AI For Famous Ad Revival After Q1 Earnings Surprise

Under Armour Inc UAA UA issued a first-quarter earnings beat Tuesday ahead of analyst expectations on revenue and profit expectations.

The Baltimore, Maryland-based company also enlisted artificial intelligence (AI) to revive a 20-year-old ad-campaign. Here's what investors need to know.

By The Numbers: Under Armour issued earnings of 2 cents per share, ahead of the expected 3 cent loss. Revenues of $1.32 billion beat the $1.3 billion consensus.

While wholesale revenue declined 6% year-on-year to $742 million, direct-to-consumer revenue saw a 4% uptick to $544 million.

Under Armour's inventory marked a noticeable 38% year-on-year increase, standing at $1.3 billion.

Read more on the earnings print here.

Beyond The Numbers: The company revived its famous "Protect This House" marketing campaign. A video titled "The Ultimate Team Talk" was made with artificial intelligence (AI).

Collaborating with OpenAI's ChatGPT, the company crafted a 90-second locker room speech delivered by British actor Ashley Walters, with the script penned entirely by the chatbot.

The process involved extensive research into sports psychology and interviews with prominent footballers, leading to a series of guidelines fed to ChatGPT to script the rousing speech.

Under Armour expressed its belief in human-AI collaboration’s potential to impact athletes’ peak performance while emphasizing that AI could inspire — but not replace — humans’ deep understanding of consumers.

"We were able to harness innovative AI technology to create ‘The ultimate team talk' and prove that human-AI collaboration can fundamentally impact how athletes achieve peak performance," Under Armour said, according to The Drum.

The earnings beat and creative marketing approach highlights the company's multifaceted strategy in navigating the evolving landscape of retail and branding.

Watch the video below: