Each Zendaya campaign comes with a new director and a new genre. The approach takes clothing out of the catalog and into story worlds with many cultural reference points, so different audiences find something familiar. On’s marketing chief is steering that shift toward storytelling.
When On presented its strategy at its Investor Day on Sept. 22, Gérald Marolf, On’s Chief Product Officer, explained the discipline On applies to every category it enters, spelled out by co-founder David Allemann earlier in the day:
“Can the innovation disrupt the category, does it build cultural relevance beyond performance, and is the category ready to be premiumized?”
Cultural relevance means many things at once and can be used to frame an F1 sponsorship, a partnership with a K-pop band or a local event activation. In the case of On, 2026 delivered something that at the same time draws on the pull of mainstream screen entertainment and takes creativity to the level of an artistic work. With the campaign film for the first collection made with Zendaya, On even took home a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions.
Now, the second collection plays with a different cinematic register: Lara Croft, the martial arts movies and a bit of Everything Everywhere All at Once. It also borrows from parkour, another urban cultural reference, with brutalist architecture as the stage. The movie itself is sufficient reason to feature the campaign. The product comes later, but brings the On product philosophy down to what to wear.
On launched the collection on Oct. 1, developed with stylist Law Roach. It is sold through the brand’s website and its own stores worldwide, and immersive pop-ups at flagship stores in Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and Chengdu carry the launch into retail.
A fight scene as a fabric test
Pantera, a trio of Argentinian directors working through production company SMUGGLER, shot the film, titled Zendaya In Your New Favorite Action Movie.
The film was shot in Prague at the Strahov ventilation towers, the TSK tunnel control building and the National Museum’s New Building, where the final jump takes place. In the two-minute film, a group of athletic women chases Zendaya through a dreamlike city as she fights her way through choreographed sequences and escapes by leaping from a building.
Trade title Campaign US made it Ad of the Week, praising “a refreshingly creative swing” by On. The brand also released stills.
A snake print that works like camouflage
The collection is built on basics that change shape. Sweatpants and crew necks come oversized, with ruched panels and bungee cords that let each piece shift in silhouette. A custom python print covers a bodysuit, a fitted top with long sleeves and an anorak with a half zip. Zendaya describes the print as “a modern camouflage.”
The Cloudnova Moon gets a Mary Jane redesign, with an upper of engineered knit fastened by speed laces.
On keeps building a movie library able to resonate with many different people
At the Investor Day, Chief Marketing Officer Alex Griffin used his marketing session to explain the brand ambition to go for entertainment-style storytelling. This storytelling is, so to speak, the dress of the dress: it takes the collection out of a catalog to immerse it in reference worlds so carefully built that everyone can find something to recognize from their casual and cultural references.
For the author of this article, it was the less known corner of the famous Prague brutalist architecture of the sixties. And yes, also a bit of Kill Bill. Such is the On way into cultural marketing.
