A campaign aimed at another industry
On 6 October 2025, timed to World Mental Health Day, ASICS publishes a release headed "Why Travel for Wellness? ASICS Reveals 15 Minutes of Movement Can Boost Your Mood More Than a Week at a Wellness Retreat". The standfirst invites everyone to take an Everyday Escape, "showing you don't need to travel far or spend big to take your body and mind to a happier place".1
The comparison is with the wellness travel business rather than with another sportswear brand. The actor Natasha Rothwell, of The White Lotus, is cast as ASICS' Everyday Escape Concierge.1 Campaign credits the work to Golin.2
Campaign describes the film in one line: "TV show White Lotus actress Natasha Rothwell stars in this ad for sportswear brand Asics, encouraging people to take a 15-minute movement break."2 The White Lotus is set in luxury resorts, which is the category the campaign names.
Source: ASICS Youtube
What the survey reports
ASICS publishes two pieces of research. The first is a survey of 11,000 people across 16 markets, with fieldwork in August 2025 and each market sample nationally representative by age and gender. Seventy-one per cent find daily exercise more effective for stress reduction than a wellness holiday, 65 per cent find it more mood enhancing, and 73 per cent report longer lasting benefits. Sixty-seven per cent say their wellness holiday failed to meet expectations, and the same share say the benefits faded on leaving or shortly after returning. Thirty-two per cent name the cost itself as a source of stress.1
The company sets that against the cost of the alternative: an average wellness holiday of 1,764 US dollars a week, 41 per cent more than standard travel, an average distance of 1,920 kilometres, and demand up 33 per cent in a year.1
The trial the headline rests on
The second piece supplies the headline number. The Everyday Escape trial runs from 4 to 18 August 2025 with 17 participants from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, each of whom has attended a wellness holiday or retreat in the preceding year. Dr Brendon Stubbs of King's College London and the University of Vienna leads it. Participants taking fifteen minute daily movement breaks report a 21 per cent greater uplift in their overall mental state than from their wellness holiday.1
Stubbs describes the result: "The Everyday Escape trial shows that small movement breaks can boost mood and reduce stress more effectively than a wellness holiday. All the participants said they'd be continuing to take movement breaks moving forward, and 81% said they're now prioritising movement for their wellbeing over attending another retreat."1
ASICS publishes the design as follows. The sample is 17 people over fourteen days. The comparison is against a wellness holiday each participant had already taken, so the measurement is of a current experience against a recalled one. ASICS does not describe the work as a randomised controlled trial, does not claim peer review, and publishes no instrument for the phrase "overall mental state". No publication of the trial beyond the release could be located.1 The quoted 81 per cent does not correspond to a whole number of 17 participants: thirteen is 76.5 per cent and fourteen is 82.4 per cent.
The White Lotus Trailer. Source: HBO Youtube
The threshold is three and a half years old
The fifteen minute figure is not new research. ASICS' State of Mind Index puts the minimum effective dose at fifteen minutes and nine seconds in April 2022, and the number carries through the campaigns since.3 Everyday Escape applies the existing threshold to a new comparison.
Gary Raucher, Head of Global Marketing for ASICS, closes the release on the acronym: "At ASICS, we believe that you don't need to go far to leave it all behind. That's why we're inviting everyone to take an Everyday Escape, a simple 15-minute movement break, to take their body and mind to a happier place."1
Rothwell gives the same argument in the language of access: "Sure, you can spend thousands of dollars or fly halfway across the world to feel better, or you can just step outside and move your body. Your Everyday Escape could be a walk, a stretch, a dance in your kitchen. It's free, it's simple, and it's yours."1
In the Middle East the campaign runs through ASICS' own Instagram and website with regional data attached: UAE residents travel an average of 2,867 kilometres and spend 6,003 dirhams on a wellness holiday. Empyre Communications handles the regional rollout, and Nikola Djordjevic, Head of Marketing at ASICS Middle East, gives the regional line: "You don't need to go far to leave it all behind. Movement is the most accessible escape."4
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. ASICS Corporation, "Why Travel for Wellness? ASICS Reveals 15 Minutes of Movement Can Boost Your Mood More Than a Week at a Wellness Retreat", 6 October 2025, for the release date and its timing to World Mental Health Day, the quoted headline and standfirst, the casting of Natasha Rothwell as Everyday Escape Concierge, the survey of 11,000 respondents across 16 markets with August 2025 fieldwork and all its reported percentages, the wellness holiday cost, distance and demand figures, the Everyday Escape trial of 4 to 18 August 2025 with 17 participants from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia led by Dr Brendon Stubbs of King's College London and the University of Vienna, the 21 per cent figure, and the quotations from Stubbs, from Gary Raucher, Head of Global Marketing for ASICS, and from Natasha Rothwell. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/2025-10-06_everyday-escape
2. Campaign, "Asics 'The everyday escape' by Golin", for the agency credit and for the quoted one line description of the film. The full credits list is behind a paywall and no creative, production or media credits beyond the agency could be retrieved. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/asics-the-everyday-escape-golin/1935077
3. ASICS Corporation, "ASICS State of Mind Index proves positive impact of movement on world's mental health", 13 April 2022, for the minimum effective dose of movement identified at fifteen minutes and nine seconds. https://corp.asics.com/en/press/article/asics-state-of-mind-index-proves-positive-impact-of-movement-on-world's-mental-health
4. Campaign Middle East, "Inside ASICS' The Everyday Escape campaign", 4 November 2025, for the regional rollout through ASICS' own Instagram and website, the credit to Empyre Communications, the UAE figures of 2,867 kilometres travelled and 6,003 dirhams spent on a wellness holiday, and the quotation from Nikola Djordjevic, Head of Marketing at ASICS Middle East. https://campaignme.com/inside-asics-the-everyday-escape-campaign/
