New Balance Intros Rosalìa as Brand Ambassador

Spanish pop star gets stylish noir treatment

New Balance uses noir tropes to introduce Spanish pop and flamenco singer Rosalía as a brand ambassador and spotlight its new 204L shoe.

The sports footwear and apparel brand partnered with American Haiku on the highly stylized work. “The Ambassador” marks its second outing with the agency on the heels of “Grey Days” in 2024. 

Moody, brooding photographic stills tell the story of a package changing hands in Boston before the carrier—a mysterious woman wearing 204Ls—rushes through the rain and travels to NYC. She reaches a boardroom and delivers the package to eager executives. That courier is Rosalìa.

Campaign elements include OOH, print, digital, social and a global media partnership with Harper’s Bazaar. 

“We built a cinematic brief for a stills narrative,” says Tom Henshaw, global director of Lifestyle at New Balance. “We wanted to achieve a sense of presence and depth, without just defaulting to traditional film. We knew static out-of-home would be a key channel for impact, so we focused on developing content that had social and digital in mind, but also worked brilliantly at landmark OOH locations in key cities. The key visuals honestly look like epic movie posters.”

 

 

 

 

 

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The effort wasn’t meant to be a straight endorsement, but rather a genuine partnership with Rosalìa’s artistic vision. In fact, The new ambassadorship signals a deeper move into entertainment. Henshaw notes this allows the brand to “extend its influence” beyond tried-and-true sports marketing, he says.

Rosalìa joins a roster of athletes and cultural figures that includes Coco Gauff, Shohei Ohtani, Jack Harlow, Gabby Thomas and Bukayo Saka.

“Our whole approach here is to build authentic, innovative, and long-term partnerships with compelling creative visionaries who are at the forefront of youth culture,” Henshaw also says. “That’s a perfect mirror to New Balance—we’ve always aimed to be innovators, not followers.”