I recently had a dialogue with the Wolverine Worldwide team on increasing their demographic and reach for Merrell and Saucony. In that discussion I talked about the lack of Saucony highlights in track and field and why this could potentially be a small and inexpensive method of garnering favor with a demographic the brand isn’t reaching. My intent wasn’t to say, “Hey, you’re missing out on Black folks by failing to show interest in this category.” The intent was to look at how a brand like HOKA inserted itself into the footwear dialogue for all of track and field in the Tri-State area of Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi:
HOKA Provides Support to the Amazing Memphis Youth Track and Field Organization
HOKA had an athlete win a gold in the USATF Championships this weekend, but that doesn’t compare to the organic engagement of grassroots for the brand with young athletes and their parents this year by working with the MYA. I actually did something similar in an unofficial manner for ASICS by handing out almost 100 spikes to athletes in Memphis. These small, cost-effective branding efforts are long-term branding moments. These things happen often in running with community and specialty store running meetups. A company like Tracksmith is embedded there and has generated a solid following with around 200,000 fans combined on social media platforms.
There are organic opportunities that exist in thinking long-term about how you engage with an audience that hasn’t discovered the brand. It’s not just the segment you aren’t reaching where you gain ground by working in a niche sport like track and field. A brand can go from unknown to discoverable for people engaged in the sport as well. This happened for me this weekend. I’m a track dad and an assistant coach in the sport. I had never heard of Tracksmith until I watched the Cravont Charleston win in the 100m this weekend. No one in my circle had heard of the brand.
Yet, in one weekend Tracksmith’s Amateur Support Program reached a new demographic via the “niche” category of track sprints. Amateur Support Program | Tracksmith | Tracksmith While the cost of sponsorship for the three athletes in the USATF who won gold medals isn’t disclosed, one weekend on one event, Cravont Charleston 100m championship win on NBC Sports YouTube, generated a social media value of
- Reach 497,000
- Interactions Likes/Dislikes 7,600
- Comments 677
- Social Media Value: $6,558.00
The roster of athletes who competed added over 10,000 likes on Instagram across the Tracksmith website and an additional total on their own channels. In order for this to mean more to the brand a series of things must take place in support of this moment. If the ‘Eliot’ team doubles down and begins to develop more content for these athletes, the value will increase even more than the one item of content I’ve measured with this YouTube video. If USATF and NBC Sports did a better job of presenting the event, the reach could have been amazing. As it stands the streaming setup on Peacock hasn’t been broken down at all and most of the events weren’t given any coverage. I’ve written continuously how every brand must be a media company. This means any potential event should be covered and content should be generated. Tracksmith had 40 athletes supported. This means there are 40 different stories to tell from this event… it will be interesting to see the follow -up. Branding vs marketing requires stories. The story of Eliot and 3 champions in 2023 is one hell of a start to a narrative rooted in running for a brand fully aware and intentional about content as marketing.