Web news Digital marketing brings consumers closer to the brands

Six years ago Salomon did something extraordinary. The brand launched Salomon Freeski TV, a season-long video show on the Internet with 12 new episodes every ski season. Skiers immediately fell in love with the videos packed with snow, speed, emotion and excitement. But Salomon’s purpose was not just to entertain. 

“Freeski TV is the key pillar of Salomon’s content marketing strategy intented to inspire people. By then, the main reason it was launched was to re-claim Salomon’s legitimacy in the core community of skiers”, says Benjamin Aidan, Digital Marketing Director of Amer Sports.

The recipe worked. Now Salomon is one of the top ski brands in freeskiing scene and the amount of viewers of Freeski TV was around six million during the 2012-13 ski season. Direct contact Freeski TV was one of the first large scale digital marketing project of Amer Sports. Another milestone was Suunto Movescount, the digital community of Suunto users.

“With Movescount.com, Suunto established a direct relationship with its current and potential consumers. In addition to bringing its high-quality performance analysis online, consumers got the possibility of learning more about the products they are using and are able to easily share their experiences with their friends and other interested people”, says Mikko Simon, Global Digital Marketing Manager of Amer Sports.

Digital marketing has a growing importance in the marketing mix of Amer Sports’ brands.

“Since most of our consumers are active online, we need to be there as well. We always aim to create engaging experiences for our customers. We have to be as exciting and entertaining online as people feel our brands are when they are using our products  in their sports activities”, Mikko Simon says.

Direct sales

A closer contact with consumers helps the brands in many ways. “It helps product development, because we get more information about the needs of consumers. It also helps sales: when you have established the contact, you open up endless opportunities for additional sales by building loyalty around your brand”, Ben Aidan emphasizes.

Digital marketing and ecommerce are developing hand in hand.

“More and more people are using our digital platforms. The increase of the traffic to our websites is roughly 20-30 per cent every year. E-commerce has a 15-20 per cent share of total sporting goods sales in US, in Europe it is still a little bit less. Some people say it can be as much as 40 per cent of the total business. No one really knows”, Aidan says.

Digital marketing has already changed the sports business. The change will inevitably go on.

“People already look for information about the product before going to the store. But when they know what they want, they want the product straight away, whether online or offline. We call it the big cross-channel revolution. The last area to come are personalized products according to your specific measurements and desires.”

Also the marketing changes. The future is a mix between online and offline, Mikko Simon predicts.

“Basically we are talking about 360-degree relationships with our consumers. You might start the dialog at a tennis tournament, and you can continue it at home with your computer or your connected TV when you are watching the tournament later. We will see more and more holistic programs built around the ways consumers interact with the sports and our brands.”

Source Amer sports for Salomon


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