POWERING PROTECTED GROWTH
On, Market-by-Market
For almost a decade, F31 served as the retained marketing agency for On across the MENA region, working alongside the brand’s regional distributor to help establish, scale, and evolve one of the world’s fastest-growing performance brands.
What began in 2016 as the introduction of an unknown Swiss running brand into a highly competitive market quickly evolved into something far bigger: building long-term cultural and commercial relevance across performance, lifestyle, retail, and community spaces.
As On expanded from technical running footwear into apparel, everyday wear, fashion collaborations, and direct-to-consumer growth, our role evolved with it. From retail floors and grassroots run clubs to global campaigns and regional activations, F31 became deeply embedded in shaping how the brand was experienced across the GCC.
Our focus was never short-term visibility. It was building sustained brand equity at every level of the ecosystem.
F31 developed and executed On’s regional brand strategy across seven countries, building a connected marketing ecosystem that aligned global positioning with local cultural relevance.
We translated international campaigns into regionally resonant platforms, leading fully integrated marketing across retail, digital, community, partnerships, events, ambassadors, and paid media. Every touchpoint was designed to strengthen brand consistency while accelerating awareness, demand, and participation.
Our B2B division activated over 80 retail doors across the GCC, combining technical product education, retail marketing, visual merchandising, and staff advocacy programs to transform frontline teams into confident brand storytellers.
Alongside this, our community division built grassroots running and movement ecosystems across key regional markets, creating meaningful participation around the brand through ambassador programs, training experiences, run clubs, race partnerships, and cultural activations.
We managed On’s regional social presence, influencer ecosystems, media buying, local content production, athlete partnerships, and experiential rollouts while simultaneously elevating regional talent into global brand moments.
The result was a fully connected growth engine spanning performance, lifestyle, retail, and community - helping position On as one of the most culturally relevant and commercially successful performance brands in the region.
During our tenure, On’s GCC growth became the strongest-performing region globally.
The objective was clear: ensure the region could see itself reflected inside a global fashion moment. As On unveiled the Cloudtilt x Loewe - a collision of luxury fashion and performance innovation - F31 identified an opportunity to localise the campaign through a cultural lens that felt both aspirational and regionally authentic. From talent sourcing and partnership management to campaign amplification and rollout strategy, we positioned Amna as the face of the regional narrative, creating a powerful intersection between speed, style, performance, and representation.
The campaign dominated the region through large-scale mall takeovers, citywide billboards, influencer amplification, social rollout, and retail visibility across key GCC locations. The product sold out within seconds, while the campaign itself became one of the region’s strongest examples of how global collaborations can be successfully translated into culturally relevant local moments.
As the partnership evolved, so did the scale of the brand experience. For the World Championships, F31 worked closely with global teams to transform the event from a standard sponsorship presence into a culturally connected community moment. This included bringing reigning IRONMAN World Champion Gustav Iden into the market for an integrated schedule of appearances, including community shakeout runs, live Q&A sessions, media moments, and athlete engagement experiences.
Importantly, our role extended beyond regional storytelling. F31 actively helped bridge GCC talent into global brand moments, ensuring regional ambassadors became part of On’s wider international narrative.
A standout example was the Budapest World Championships, where F31 facilitated the integration of five key regional ambassadors into the global event experience, generating live content, community storytelling, and behind-the-scenes coverage from within the world championship environment itself.
Another defining moment was 777 - a regional endurance initiative supporting 7 athletes running across all 7 Emirates in 7 days. The campaign became a powerful expression of community, resilience, and movement culture within the UAE.
Working closely with both global and regional teams, we developed and executed launch strategies for all key franchise moments, translating global innovation stories into impactful retail experiences across the region.
Alongside campaign rollouts, we built a scalable retail advocacy program powered by dedicated technical representatives who delivered ongoing product education, VM implementation, customer engagement training, in-store activations, and live product testing across the GCC. F31 also managed seasonal retail campaigns, POS systems, run club takeovers, event support, and branded retail assets - acting as a true extension of On’s regional marketing team.
The result was more than retail visibility. It was a connected retail culture that turned frontline teams into confident brand advocates while helping establish On as one of the most recognisable premium performance brands in the region.
