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Customer Segmentation

Demographic

Everyday people, of all genders, passionate about the fitness lifestyle and sustainability initiatives
Age group: 14-45 age group
Married with teen children
Financially stable - average income is middle to high
Educated

Behavioral

Healthy, passionate about fitness
Fashion and style conscious, sporty
Enjoys popular culture

Psychographic

Active, adventurous, aspirational
Tech-savvy
Involved in sustainability initiatives

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Our focus is on everyday people, of all genders, who are passionate about the fitness lifestyle and sustainability initiatives. We are specifically focusing on married couples with teen children. Research has shown that the 14-45 age group is more heavily targeted when it comes to Adidas consumers (start.io, 2022). In an article, it was revealed that, “An Adidas study found that sustainability is an important purchasing factor for 70% of consumers. In response, the brand is continuing its sustainability efforts” (start.io, 2021).

Parents with teens are a lucrative market segment. A Forbes article noted that, “Most Gen Xers are in their prime spending years, second only to baby boomers in terms of buying power, with purchasing influence over their own Gen Z households as well as their boomer parents” (Wiley, 2022).

Adidas has established initiatives for engaging a younger generation and encouraging participation in athletics, as well as educating on sustainability and the importance of saving the environment, particularly our oceans. By targeting parents, who set the example for their children and purchase their teen’s footwear and clothing, we can reach a larger audience, but one that is also specific This generation of teenagers is particularly relevant to the Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans campaign, as recent research has shown that, “The vast majority of Generation Z shoppers prefer to buy sustainable brands” (Petro, 2021).

Sources:

Adidas target market segmentation and marketing strategy – Audience Demographics & Competitors. Start.io - A Mobile Marketing and Audience Platform. (2022, August 15).

Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.start.io/blog/adidas-target-market-segmentation-and-marketing-strategy-audience-demographics-competitors/

Petro, G. (2021, April 1302). Gen Z is emerging as the sustainability generation. Forbes. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2021/04/30/gen-z-is-emerging-as-the-sustainability-generation/?sh=7b5da7338699

Wiley, Daniel (2022) Here’s How Brands Can Authentically Connect With Gen X https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/03/31/heres-how-brands-can-authentically-connect-with-gen-x/?sh=29df248d1ce4

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Customer Persona

Name: Sierra Miller

Background:

Married with one daughter, age 17
Creative supervisor at a corporate company.
Aspiring to become director

Demographic:

Age: 45 (Gen X)
Gender: Female
Income: Upper Middle Class, $145K combined household income
Lives in Chicago, IL
Education: Master’s degree

Identifiers:

Helicopter Mom
Avid Runner with 7onSundays
Living a healthy lifestyle
Enjoys thrifting and vintage shopping with her daughter

Goals

Primary: Find a pair of running sneakers that are stylish and comfortable
Secondary: Buy running sneakers that are sustainably made

Challenges:

Primary: It’s hard to find a shoe that’s stylish and provides sufficient support
Secondary: Wishes that she could buy upcycled shoes to reduce waste, but also wants new shoes

“Keep pushing forward.”

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Sierra Miller is an ideal customer for Adidas. She’s a mother of one teenage daughter, and lives with her husband in Chicago. Running has always been a part of her life, and as she inches closer to middle age, she’s very focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Sierra has encouraged her daughter to take up running and to live healthy. Sierra’s a bit of a helicopter mom, constantly checking on her daughter to ensure that she has the tools needed to excel in school and extracurriculars. Sierra’s trying to learn how to let go, though, since her daughter is going to college next year at Boulder State, in Colorado. The two bond through thrift shopping (they’re into upcycling for the environment), but they will also splurge with gear from Adidas (for running and other sports) because of the high quality products.

Sierra often thinks about how lucky she is to have career success and a healthy, mostly happy, family. She frequently says to herself, “keep pushing forward,” to get through the challenges and stress that arise with work, her husband, daughter, aging parents, and the news, which can be so heavy.

Sources:

Snider S. and Emma Kerr (2022). Where do I fall in the American Economic Class System. U.S Money News https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system

Cotrell, Sarah (2022). A Year-by-Year Guide to Different Generations and Their Personalities. Parents https://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/style/generation-names-and-years-a-cheat-sheet-for-parents/#:~:text=Generation%20X%20parents%20were%20famously,children's%20social%20and%20educational%20development.

Yates, Allison (2022) The 13 best run clubs in Chicago. Time Out

https://www.timeout.com/chicago/sports/top-10-chicago-running-clubs-in-no-particular-order

Brett, David (2019). ‘Gen Xers care more about sustainability than millennials’. Schroders https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/individual/insights/gen-xers-care-more-about-sustainability-than-millennials/

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GTM Goals

Provide customer with sustainable Adidas shoe products, without compromising functionality and quality
Increase engagement/participation with the Adidas Runtastic app
Reduce plastic waste
Foster a sense of belonging for consumers
Provide a sense of exclusivity by offering a limited edition product
Create global brand awareness for Adidas X Parley through digital marketing and traditional marketing efforts:

Website and in-app messaging
POE social media content - utilize #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley hashtags for earned content.
Google search/display/YouTube ads
Targeted email campaigns
Blog content surrounding products and educating on sustainability initiatives of Adidas x Parley

Utilize CRM platform, Salesforce, for full digital 360 integration and content management (ecommerce, marketing cloud - including social studio for social media management, targeted email campaigns, etc.)

Awareness - Increase brand awareness through digital marketing tools (social media, video, blog, email, and traditional advertising).�
Interest - Google Search/Display/YouTube, website, in-app messaging, and POE social content.�
Desire - Website and in-app promotions, retargeting/marketing email campaigns, paid social ads tailored to retargeting.�
Action - Website conversions for purchased, mobile app purchases, and in-store purchases surrounding Adidas x Parley collaboration.

Awareness

Interest

Desire

Action

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

•Parley for the Ocean began with producing 3 new UltraBoost running shoe models from plastic waste to support the Run for the Oceans campaign and partnership with Parley, and has since expanded to numerous products made with ocean plastic.

•Adidas collaborates with famous athletes and influencers to promote the products and sustainability initiatives. They also partnered with athletic teams and celebrities to create limited Adidas x Parley products.

*Limited edition products and sponsorships, such as Stella McCartney line with Ocean Plastic, Premier League Football kits, Major League Soccer Uniforms, as well as many other collaborations.

•Visible branding and limited edition creates a feeling of “belonging” to an exclusive group for consumers, while helping to end plastic waste.

•Adidas uses digital platforms to engage consumers and increase the personalized customer journey across all touchpoints, to retain customer loyalty and increase revenue, in order to maximize the LTV of customers. Paid, earned, and owned social media (earned through the #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley hashtags), targeted email campaigns to engage consumers and increase awareness of new products and sustainability initiatives, and website & in-app messaging to tailor the overall digital customer experience.

•Social platforms create a sense of community through shared (earned) social posts. Targeted social ads (paid) create a personalized experience for consumers, while promoting Adidas x Parley products. Organic social encourages consumers to live a lifestyle supporting sustainability and protecting the oceans.

•Utilize Salesforce for full digital 360 integration and content management (ecommerce, marketing cloud - including social studio for social media management, etc.)

•Awareness Marketing Channels: Organic and paid social media, video, blog content, email campaigns, as well as traditional advertising in retail store locations. These channels will help create awareness surrounding the Adidas x Parley collaboration products, while also providing value/awareness and educating consumers on the threat of marine plastic pollution to our oceans.

•Interest Marketing Channels: Google search/display/YouTube ads, website, additional social media content (Instagram, Facebook, etc) utilizing organic content (#runfortheoceans), email, and paid social ads targeting audience and lookalike audiences.

•Desire Marketing Channels: Website promotions, in-app promotions, retargeting/marketing email campaigns for abandoned carts and promotions tailored to unique customer identifiers. Also, paid social ads tailored to retargeting.

•Action Marketing Channels - Result in website conversions for purchases, mobile app purchases, and in-store purchases surrounding the Adidas x Parley collaboration.

Sources:

https://news.adidas.com/made-with-recycled-materials/adidas-x-parley--co-creating-a-plastic-free-future/s/bffa8756-ed99-41be-93cc-5c91b9fdb610#:~:text=To%2Ddate%2C%20adidas%20x%20Parley,solution%20that%20results%20in%20clear

https://digitalagencynetwork.com/digital-marketing-strategy-of-adidas/

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

https://www.salesforce.com/ap/solutions/digital-360/overview/

https://www.parley.tv/updates/adidasxparley

Salesforce graphic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salesforce.com_logo.svg

Adidas x Parley Graphic: https://www.strava.com/challenges/3048

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Customer Journey

Persona	Customer Thoughts/ Actions	Awareness Stage	Consideration Stage	Decision Stage
Sierra Miller & Raven Miller Problem: Sierra & Raven need new running shoes that check off three boxes: stylish, comfortable, and sustainably made. Sierra needs to buy the shoes as soon as possible for the spring running season.	What is the customer thinking or feeling? What is the customer’s action? What or where is the buyer researching?	Sierra needs new shoes that check off their three requirements. She searches their “go to brands” online, researches sustainable running shoes, and considers the option to buy thrifted running shoes. Sierra is frustrated and annoyed at the amount of research required to buy shoes.	Sierra has “decision fatigue” from all the research performed on various brands and products. Her daughter Raven recommends Adidas x Parley Ultraboost running shoes. Sierra takes a look at the Ultraboost shoes on the Adidas website.	Sierra and Raven travel to their local Adidas store, try on the product, and decide to purchase online (due to the 15% off promo for joining the Adiclub rewards program). Sierra is relieved to have satisfied all three requirements for the sneakers.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Awareness Stage:

Sierra needs to find shoes to purchase that check off their three boxes: stylish, comfortable, and sustainable.

Sierra typically buys Nikes, Adidas, or Brooks running shoes. She will research to see what these three brands have to offer on their websites, and she will Google search, “sustainably made running shoes,” to see if there are other brands to consider, Additionally, she will search, “thrifting stores for running shoes,” to see if she can find any lightly worn running shoes (she’s not thrilled about this option). Sierra is frustrated and annoyed about having to take this extra research step, especially when she has plenty of other responsibilities, due to her busy lifestyle.

Awareness Stage Marketing Strategy:

Our goal during this stage is to capture the attention of our target audience as they seek a solution to their problem. We could meet the audience with a solution through:

Website: An Adidas x Parley landing page that describes the Run for the Oceans campaign in detail, educates consumers on the importance of ending plastic waste, promotes their sustainable product collections, and features blog posts specifically surrounding their sustainability initiatives and the Adidas x Parley collaboration. Create easy search options so that when a customer types “sustainability” into the search bar, they will be met with “end plastic waste” featured products at the top of the page, and the various sustainable product options available underneath.

Landing page: https://www.adidas.com/us/parley

Sustainable product website search: https://www.adidas.com/us/sustainable

Informative blog post surrounding Adidas x Parley collaboration: https://www.adidas.com/us/blog/639412-how-we-turn-plastic-bottles-into-shoes-our-partnership-with-parley-for-the-oceans

Opportunities: When typing “Parley” into the website search bar, the Parley collection page could feature a banner with brief points on how the products are sustainable, located at the top of the page. Currently, the collection landing page does not feature an Adidas x Parley banner.

Search Engine Marketing: As a brand, we could bid for SEM keywords that describe the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost product terms, such as “environmentally friendly shoes,” “sustainable footwear,” “sustainable shoes,” etc.

Social Media: Share photo and video content (POE) incorporating the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost collection, as well as content surrounding the Run for the Oceans campaign initiatives (educating customers on on the organization and the event, explaining the importance of ending plastic waste, etc.). This would promote brand awareness and inform customers on how the products can meet their needs, while also educating consumers and providing value, all while “humanizing” the company/brand. Adidas can garner earned content by utilizing the hashtags, #RunfortheOceans and #adidasparley.

Opportunities: Utilize and encourage consumers to share content using additional hashtags pertaining to product features, such as #EcoFriendly, #EthicalClothes, and #sustainableshoes.

Consideration Stage:

Sierra has come across a few brands that she’s never heard of before, and discovered some additional stores that carry surplus shoes (she was surprised to find this option while Google searching “thrifting stores for running shoes”). She is feeling “decision fatigue” from her extensive research. Sierra asks her daughter which brand she would prefer, and Raven mentions the Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans videos on TikTok, and the featured Adidas x Parley line of Ultraboost shoes. Sierra checks the Adidas social media channels for the videos, and then visits the Adidas website. While on the site, she looks into the Ultraboost product details (colors and sizes).

Consideration Stage Marketing Strategy::

Here we aim to show the consumer how the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost collection will best meets their needs. This can be achieved through:

Website: Pop-up product promotions surrounding the Adidas x Parley UltraBoost collection. This will help capture the attention of someone like Sierra Miller, who is searching for sustainable products. Additionally, implementing chatbots for customer support directly on the homepage and not just the product pages, could further help customers who have questions as they first arrive on the homepage. Individual product pages, describing the shoe materials and how the products are sustainable, will help customers, such as Sierra, make their purchase decision. Moreover, the 360 product view allows consumers to see the entire product.

Search Engine Marketing: Use cookies and cross-site tracking to target customers, such as Sierra, after she visits the Adidas website.

Social Media: Partner with celebrities and influencers to create collaborative photo/video content surrounding the Adidas x Parley collaboration and the Run for the Oceans campaign. Utilize the hashtags, #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley, to gain earned content. Click here to see an example. Partnerships are beneficial during this stage, since consumers trust the advice of prominent, well-known figures, and like to see celebrity endorsements.

Decision Stage:

Since Raven has wide feet, Sierra insists that Raven go to the Adidas store in the Chicago Premium Outlets to try them on before buying them. While in the store, they both love the Ultraboost line and determine which size fits them best. Once they’ve determined their size and the style they’d each prefer, they decide to purchase the shoes online, as Adidas is featuring an online promotion (15% off) for new members joining the Adiclub rewards program. They also download the Adidas Runtastic app, in order to register for the Run for the Oceans event. After such a great customer experience, Sierra plans to tell her 7OnSundays running group about the new Adidas shoes and the Runtastic app, and encourage them to join the event too!

Decision Stage Marketing Strategy:

During this stage, it’s important to create a seamless purchase process for customers to easily buy Adidas products.

Purchase Experience: For those who shop in store, the sales representative would encourage the customer to download the Adidas Runtastic app, in order to participate in the

Run for the Oceans campaign. The sales rep would also invite the customer to become an Adiclub member for exclusive discounts and benefits. For those who shop online, they

would encounter a smooth purchase process on the checkout landing page, and also be offered the option to join the Adiclub to save an additional 15% off.

Following the decision stage, it’s important to create customer loyalty and retention, to increase LTV. This means implementing follow-up email campaigns (featuring similar products to those purchased, current promotions, informative blog articles, etc.), targeted social media ads, and more. This will help to continue the customer experience beyond the purchase.

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Multichannel Marketing Tools

CRM tool - Salesforce

Salesforce Digital 360 deepens customer relationships through seamless marketing, ecommerce, and online experiences.
Through Salesforce, Adidas managed all digital marketing efforts from targeted emails to social media content (POE), website, etc.
Connected data to build loyalty through personalized customer experiences.
Created custom reports to enhance the customer journey and increase LTV of consumers, resulting in an increase in sales.

Email Marketing

Salesforce provides tools to create emails and automate delivery to a targeted audience

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Adidas uses Salesforce as a Cross-Channel Campaign Management (CCCM) tool. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows the company to create a “premium, connected, and personalized digital experience” for millions of customers. Adidas’ Head of Digital Brand Commerce, Joseph Godsey, defined this “premium, connected and personalized experience” that Adidas strives to provide in this interview with Salesforce as:

Premium – inspire love for the brand and desire for products.

Connected – take all the touchpoints where consumers can interact with Adidas - physical or online environment – and ensure that interactions are consistent and seamless.

Personalized - talk with consumers about what’s relevant to them specifically. Respect the customer’s interactions across any touchpoint, and bring what’s relevant to that customer in that particular context/moment, keeping in mind what’s interesting to the individual in terms of customer profile.

Through using Salesforce full digital 360 integration and content management, Adidas provides this three part experience to consumers, and has been able to achieve its GTM for the Run for the Oceans campaign. This cloud-based CRM platform gives Adidas the ability to identify a target market segment for this campaign by sorting through data on all of its customers. Salesforce gives Adidas tolls to manage all digital marketing efforts, and run reports to see results.

Salesforce Digital 360 deepens customer relationships through seamless marketing, ecommerce, and online experiences. The tool manages all digital marketing efforts from targeted emails to social media content, website, etc. A couple of ways Salesforce helps achieve GTM for this campaign include:

*Connect data to build loyalty through personalized customer experiences with the Run for the Oceans Campaign.

*Create custom reports to enhance the customer journey with Adidas X Parley, and increase LTV of consumers, resulting in an increase in sales.

*Acquisition channels: Ocean plastic storytelling and brand awareness promoting the limited edition products increases recognition across the globe for Adidas x Parley, particularly when promoting on website, blogs, mobile app, social media, email campaigns, and Google search/display/video. They also aimed to increase engagement/participation with the Adidas Runtastic app. Salesforce digital 360 helps the acquisition channels through platform offerings such as, Social Studio to manage owned and earned social media content and Email Studio to create personalized, scalable campaigns, targeting consumers at each part of their customer journey (forgotten cart emails - retargeting/marketing, promotions, etc.). Additionally, Salesforce provides detailed reporting for website, mobile app, social media, email, and more. They can track which landing pages performed best (such statistics on product pages and blog pages) and see detailed reports on their targeted audiences.

Sources:

https://www.salesforce.com/video/3478697/

https://www.salesforce.com/ap/solutions/digital-360/overview/

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

Salesforce graphic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salesforce.com_logo.svg

Adidas x Parley graphic: https://www.parley.tv/updates/adidasxparley

https://www.salesforceben.com/the-drip/what-is-salesforce-marketing-cloud/

Email Graphics: https://emailtuna.com/adidas.co.uk/5151195

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Multichannel Marketing Tools (continued)

Social media platforms

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Utilize hashtags: #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley to garner earned social content from consumers supporting the cause.
Paid social media ads targeting audiences, managed directly through Meta.
Manage organic content through Salesforce Social Studio for publishing posts and social listening of hashtags utilized and campaign mentions.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Multichannel marketing tools:

•Social media platforms:

-Paid, earned, and owned social media (earned through the #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley hashtags).

-Social platforms create a sense of community through shared (earned) social posts. Targeted social ads (paid) create a personalized experience for consumers, while promoting Adidas x Parley products. Organic social encourages consumers to live a lifestyle supporting sustainability and protecting the oceans.

-Manage paid social ads directly through Meta Business Manager/Ads Manager, while managing organic content and social listening through Salesforce Social Studio.

- In 2019, they had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries.

-Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, #adidasparley close to 50k tags.

Sources:

https://digitalagencynetwork.com/digital-marketing-strategy-of-adidas/

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

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Multichannel Marketing Tools (continued)

Google ads

Search
Display
YouTube

Website

Feature Adidas x Parley products
Provide background on Run for the Oceans
Highlight collaborations with famous athletes, professional teams, and influencers
Feature blog content surrounding Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans campaign to educate consumers on sustainability initiatives and how to support the cause.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Multichannel marketing tools:

•Google Ads

-Search, Display, and YouTube ads

-Create innovative, unique videos to showcase the Run for the Oceans campaign and educate on sustainability initiatives.

•Website

*Feature Adidas x Parley products.

*Provide background on Run for the Oceans campaign and cause.

*Highlight collaborations with famous athletes, professional teams, and influencers.

*Feature blog content surrounding Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans campaign to educate consumers on sustainability initiatives and how to support the cause.

Sources:

Google Ads graphic: https://www.stickpng.com/img/icons-logos-emojis/tech-companies/google-ads-logo

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPQdAm7AIPU&ab_channel=adidas�Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans landing page: https://www.adidas.com/us/runfortheoceans

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Channel & Tactic Performance

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Run for the Oceans – Social Media Marketing Overview & Platforms/Tools

Adidas’ brand image on social media is, “more than selling authentic apparel; it’s about pitching a lifestyle.”
Adidas promotes their high quality products, and also promotes what it means to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Shows consumers how to create positive change in the world. This helps to humanize the company, and portray Adidas as more relatable – a company made up of people who genuinely care about their consumers.
Adidas captures the hearts of consumers on social media by:

Creating compelling taglines.
Advocating for sustainability and standing up for their beliefs.
Partnering with influencers and organizations whose views align with their own.
Striving to inspire and empower all people.

Social media platforms/tools

Facebook/Instagram (Meta)
TikTok
YouTube
Utilize hashtags: #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley to garner earned social content from consumers supporting the cause.
Paid social media ads targeting audiences, managed directly through Meta to further support organic campaign..
Manage organic content through Salesforce Social Studio for publishing posts and social listening of hashtags utilized and campaign mentions.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Social Media Marketing Brand Overview:

– Adidas’ brand image on social media is, “more than selling authentic apparel; it’s about pitching a lifestyle.” This is extremely relevant to Gen X, as they seek content on social media platforms that is relevant, relatable, and authentic.

– Adidas not only promotes their high quality products through digital marketing and on their social media channels, but the company also promotes what it means to live a sustainable lifestyle, and how to create positive change in the world. This helps to humanize the company, and portray Adidas as more relatable – a company made up of people who genuinely care about their consumers.

– Adidas captures the hearts of consumers on social media by creating compelling taglines, advocating for sustainability and standing up for their beliefs, partnering with influencers and organizations whose views align with their own, and striving to inspire and empower all people.

-While Adidas used multiple social media channels for the recent Run for the Oceans campaign, Meta and TikTok are the best platforms to use to reach our target persona Sierra Miller, who also does the shopping for her daughter Raven.

-Both Forbes and Statista identified Facebook as the social media channel where Gen X spends the most time. Since Facebook and Instagram merged under Meta, it makes sense to try to capture Sierra Miller’s attention with similar content on both social channels, to meet her wherever she may be online. Forbes’ research found that Gen X prioritizes authentic and “real” content on Instagram, featuring actual people and their “real” voices/opinions. It was also revealed that Facebook is a great platform to “reinforce positive brand associations among existing [Gen X] customers…Facebook can also be effective for sharing discount offers.” Adidas took all of this into account when establishing the Run for the Oceans social media campaign strategy, as you’ll see in the next slides.

-Tiktok is becoming increasingly popular for Gen X. The same research, referenced above from Forbes, uncovered that TikTok is growing in popularity and holds “obvious” appeal for Gen X, even though this platform is often viewed as being geared towards younger audiences. Due to this, Gen X’s children may be influencing parents with TikTok trends and wanting to purchase popular products featured on the platform. This is extremely relevant when considering our persona example, Sierra Miller, who takes into consideration what her daughter needs in proper running shoes and what she is interested in as well. Although, when trying to target Gen X on TikTok specifically, it was found that nostalgia and humor are the most effective content strategies, as opposed to blatant sales pitches.

Social media platforms:

– Organic and paid social media (earned through the #runfortheoceans and #adidasparley hashtags and owned through posting/creating content directly from Adidas).

– Social platforms create a sense of community through shared (earned) social posts. Targeted social ads (paid) to further support the organic campaign can create a personalized experience for consumers, while promoting the cause and the Adidas x Parley products.

– Organic social encourages consumers to live a lifestyle supporting sustainability and protecting the oceans.

– Manage organic content and social listening through Salesforce Social Studio. Manage paid social ads, supporting the organic campaign, directly through Meta Business Manager/Ads Manager.

– In 2019, they had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries.

– Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, #adidasparley close to 50k tags.

Sources:

https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/adidas-social-media-strategy/

https://digitalagencynetwork.com/digital-marketing-strategy-of-adidas/

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/03/31/heres-how-brands-can-authentically-connect-with-gen-x/?sh=22345aae1ce4

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Digital/Social Buzz Surrounding Adidas

In 2019, while promoting the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries.

Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, and #adidasparley had close to 50k tags.

Adidas implemented organic and paid social media content, as well as sharing user-generated (earned) content from people utilizing the promoted campaign hashtags.
Adidas has utilized platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for many years to promote awareness surrounding sustainability.
In recent years, Adidas has also implemented TikTok into their digital marketing strategy.
Adidas keeps up with trending themes on TikTok, and promotes their brand, to further humanize the company. They achieve this by partnering with influencers across TikTok, as it continues to grow and gain popularity.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Digital/Social Buzz:

-In 2019, while promoting the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries. These results were from promoting brand awareness through social media channels, emails, and in-app messaging.

-Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, and #adidasparley had close to 50k tags.

-Adidas implemented organic and paid social media content, as well as sharing user-generated (earned) content from people utilizing the promoted campaign hashtags.

-Adidas has utilized platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for many years to promote awareness surrounding sustainability. In recent years, Adidas has also implemented TikTok into their digital marketing strategy. Adidas keeps up with trending themes on TikTok, and promotes their brand, to further humanize the company. They achieve this by partnering with influencers across TikTok, as it continues to grow and gain popularity.

Sources:

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

View full TikTok video: https://www.tiktok.com/@adidas/video/7106941632410340613?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7106941632410340613

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Run for the Oceans Goals - Social Metrics

Raise awareness of marine plastic pollution through social media engagement.
Promote the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost product collection pages and drive click through traffic from social media to the Run for the Oceans landing page.
Use social media to be recognized as a global leader in sustainability.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Goals for the Run for the Oceans Campaign:

Raise awareness of marine plastic pollution, which is a detrimental environmental threat affecting the oceans.
Promote the Adidas x Parley product line, which donates a portion of sales to the funds.
Rally the support of millions of people, while giving purpose to their running goals.
Encourage users to share their experience utilizing the #RunForTheOceans hashtag.
Allow supporters to track their running achievements through the Adidas Runtastic app.

While above are the overall goals outlined on the Adidas Run for the Oceans website, we think the goals can be narrowed down into three main initiatives for the social media strategy:

Raise awareness of marine plastic pollution through social media engagement.
Promote the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost product collection pages and drive click through traffic from social media to the Run for the Oceans landing page.
Use social media to be recognized as a global leader in sustainability.

To achieve these three goals on social media, these are some of the metrics that can be used as KPIs for the two primary platforms for our buyer persona:

Facebook:

#RunForTheOceans and #AdidasParley Hashtags - measure the quantity of user-generated content earned for the Run for the Oceans campaign, which will help to increase brand and campaign awareness.
Facebook Impressions - this measurement indicates whether content from the Run for the Oceans campaign breaks through the noise to our target audience's newsfeed.
Facebook Engagement - this data will tell us if people are resonating with the posts surrounding the campaign.
New Page Likes & Followers - new likes and followers that come from posts within the Run for the Oceans campaign can help to indicate brand awareness; although, these metrics can often be looked upon as more “vanity metrics,” since followers and page likes increase with consistent content over time. When considering these metrics, we can segment by demographic which could allow us to see if we capture the attention of our buyer person, Sierra Miller.
Audience Retention - the length of time that viewers watch video content indicates if people resonate with the campaign message and product in the content being shared.

TikTok:

Content analytics - this will inform us of which type of content from the campaign most resonates with audiences on TikTok.
Follower analytics - this data will allow us to analyze whether or not we are reaching our target persona, Sierra Miller and daughter, Raven, or other audiences.
Profile views - according to Hootsuite, this is a good indication of brand interest, which we would want to further understand to see if people are resonating with Adidas and the Run for the Oceans campaign.
Hashtag views - this will allow us to see how many times people are watching content with the campaign hashtags.
TikTok engagement - this data will further reveal if people are resonating with the posts surrounding the campaign.

These are just a few of the metrics that may measure the social media results for the Run for the Oceans campaign. All of these metrics would be tracked via Salesforce Social Studio, as we outlined in the GTM strategy in week 3.

Sources:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-analytics/

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-metrics/

Photo Credit: https://sevenseasmedia.org/adidas-x-parley-sports-gear-inspires-elite-athletes-like-olympian-joao-de-lucca/

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Paid Social & SEM Budget Allocation & ROAS Goals

Paid Social:

Meta - $1.5M budget per month, for a total of $4.5M in 3 months. Daily budget of $50K.
TikTok - $500K budget per month, for a total of $1.5M in 3 months (about $16.7K per day).
Meta - While spending $4.5M, our expected ROAS for this campaign would be at least 8:1, or about $36M.
TikTok - While spending $1.5M total, our ROAS goal would be at least 8:1, or about $12M.
CPA goal of under $10 which is around the industry average for apparel/fashion ($10.98 in 2022). This would mean that at $1.5M per month for Meta, we would want to see at least 150,000 website purchases/conversions (as this would be our result metric). For TikTok, we would aim to see at least 50,000 website purchases/conversions to reach a CPA of $10 or less when spending $500K.

SEM:

$4M budget for 3 months total.
~$44.5K per day over 90 days.
ROAS goal of 8:1, or $32M over 3 months.
CPA goal of under the 2022 industry average of $57 would be acceptable, but ideally about $46 and lower, which would be closer to the previous year’s industry average.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

In 2022, a recent study from Databox found that on average, businesses saw a paid social ROAS of 6-10x. Additionally, an article from Hootsuite found that in 2020, the retail average ROAS was 8.83. Given this data, our paid social ROAS goal for the Adidas Run for the Oceans campaign would be at least 8:1.

•Paid Social:

– Meta - $1.5M budget per month, for a total of $4.5M in 3 months. Daily budget of $50K.

– TikTok - $500K budget per month, for a total of $1.5M in 3 months (about $16.7K per day).

– Meta - While spending $4.5M, our expected ROAS for this campaign would be at least 8:1, or about $36M.

– TikTok - While spending $1.5M total, our ROAS goal would be at least 8:1, or about $12M.

– CPA goal of under $10, as research has revealed the industry average of apparel/fashion to be $10.98 in 2022. This would mean that at $1.5M per month for Meta, we would want to see at least 150,000 website purchases/conversions (as this would be our result metric). For TikTok, we would aim to see at least 50,000 website purchases/conversions to reach a CPA of $10 or less when spending $500K per month..

•SEM:

– $4M budget for 3 months total.

– ~$44.5K per day over 90 days.

– ROAS goal of 8:1, or $32M over 3 months.

*SEM differs from paid social in that research has found the average Google Search CPA for retail (apparel/fashion/jewelry) in 2022 to be about $57.97, this is an $11 increase from 2021, which was at $46.06. This being said, we would want a target CPA of under $57 for the Run for the Oceans campaign. If we are at $57 which is the industry average, that would be acceptable, but ideally we would like to see closer to the previous year’s industry average of $46 and below.

Sources:

https://databox.com/facebook-ads-statistics

https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-ads-cost/

https://adbraze.com/blog/facebook-ad-benchmarks

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/05/18/search-advertising-benchmarks

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2021/10/13/search-advertising-benchmarks

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Meta - Paid Strategy

Meta ads:

Conversion objective - Website purchases.
Audience - Custom audience, which would be focused on interest targeting and lookalike audiences based on consumer behavior from the Adidas website.

Gender - All
Location - United States
Age - 18-65 (extending beyond our original persona, as all ages are involved in the Run for the Oceans campaign and may want to make a purchase from the Adidas x Parley collaboration product line).
Interest targeting - Terms used: sustainability, recycling, environment, fashion, footwear, running, walking, athletics. We would also include the names of competitors in our interest targeting, for those who have expressed interest in Nike, Under Armour, Puma, New Balance, Asics, Brooks, and Saucony.

A/B testing:

Same graphic, different copy.
Different graphics, same copy (left).
Same copy, but collection ads vs. carousel ads.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram):

•Conversion objective - website purchases

•Audience - custom audience, which would be focused on interest targeting and lookalike audiences based on consumer behavior from the Adidas website.

•Age - 18-65 (extending beyond our original persona, as all ages are involved in the Run for the Oceans campaign and may want to make a purchase from the Adidas x Parley collaboration product line).

•Interest targeting - Terms used: sustainability, recycling, environment, fashion, footwear, running, walking, athletics. We would also include the names of competitors in our interest targeting, for those who have expressed interest in Nike, Under Armour, Puma, New Balance, Asics, Brooks, and Saucony.

•Location - United States

•Gender - All

– We would run our ads with automatic placements so that they will be shown where they are likely to perform best.

– We would utilize a daily budget ($50K per day, for a total of $1.5M per month, over the course of 3 months) for the paid Meta social campaign set so that we would have more control over the ad spend and results. This would be especially effective when doing A/B testing, as we would want to see which ad type resonates best with consumers (carousel ads, collection ads, or video ads). We would use the same copy and different media or the same media and different copy (for example, different copy with the same video in two separate ads in the same campaign).

– For our carousel and collection ads, we would have them linked to the Adidas x Parley product sets, so that our sustainable collaboration product line would be pulling directly into the ads, making it easier for customers to shop and learn more about the products.

– We’d also create carousel and video ads directing consumers to the Adidas x Parley landing page, and since this landing page also features the product collection, with pixels installed, we would be able to track the website purchases, as well as the landing page visits.

– For the duration of the paid social campaigns, we would monitor and optimize our budget based on performance. This is another reason we would utilize interest based targeting and daily budgets, this way our budget would not be spent too soon. We could also see specifically which ad types were most successful by including collection ads, carousel ads, and video ads in the same campaign set.

– The mockups provided demonstrate how we will A/B test carousels to the audience, utilizing the same graphic with variations in the copy, to see which resonates best with customers.

Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) A/B testing:

– The mockups provided demonstrate how we will A/B test carousels to the audience, utilizing the same graphics with variations in the copy, to see which resonates best with customers, as well as ads with the same copy, but different graphics.

– Research has revealed that A/B testing is extremely important, as it allows companies the opportunity to make careful changes to the user experience, while collecting data on the results. A/B testing helps companies determine what resonates with consumers the best to achieve specific campaign goals, “More than just answering a one-off question or settling a disagreement, A/B testing can be used to continually improve a given experience or improve a single goal, like conversion rate, over time.”

– While utilizing A/B testing, companies can test one change at a time to help pinpoint which changes had an effect on visitor behavior, “Over time, they [companies] can combine the effect of multiple winning changes from experiments to demonstrate the measurable improvement of a new experience over the old one.”

– The article further revealed that, “By testing ad copy, marketers can learn which versions attract more clicks. By testing the subsequent landing page, they can learn which layout converts visitors to customers best. The overall spend on a marketing campaign can actually be decreased if the elements of each step work as efficiently as possible to acquire new customers.”

– The messaging we chose for the mockups with the same graphic, but different copy, focused on ending plastic waste while also promoting the new Adidas x Parley collection. The “Are you ready to help end plastic waste? Shop our new Adidas x Parley product collection and help save the oceans” ad focused on promoting the new product collection in the copy specifically, whereas the “End plastic waste through the power of sport. Together, we have motivated millions to #runfortheoceans as we work to clean-up our planet” focused on engaging customers with our sustainability initiatives vs. solely promoting the product collection in the copy itself. By utilizing the same graphics, but variations in the copy, we can determine which copy will resonate best with consumers and result in a higher number of website purchases.

– Similarly, by utilizing the same copy, but different graphics, we can determine which shoes in the new collection appealed more to consumers and resulted in a higher number of website purchases.

– We chose to publish ads on Meta because customers like our buyer’s persona, Sierra Miller and her daughter, Raven, can be found on Facebook and Instagram.

– Additionally, we chose to run TikTok ads, as our buyer’s persona likely has children (such as Sierra’s daughter, Raven) who would be active on TikTok, and could persuade parents to purchase Adidas x Parley products.

Sources:

Facebook Ad Mockup Generator: https://greymetrics.com/free-tools/ad-mock-ups-social-media

Instagram Video Ad mockup Generator: https://greymetrics.com/free-tools/ad-mock-ups-social-media

https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/ab-testing/#:~:text=A%2FB%20testing%20allows%20individuals,their%20experiences%20impact%20user%20behavior.

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TikTok Paid Strategy

TikTok ads:

Objective - Conversions
Audience - Our audience would be similar to that of Meta. We would target all genders, ages 13-54 (lower age range than Meta given TikTok’s main audience and that children can influence their parents’ purchase decision).
Location - United States
Interests - Terms used: sustainability, recycling, environment, fashion, footwear, running, walking, athletics. We would also include the names of competitors in our interest targeting, for those who have expressed interest in Nike, Under Armour, Puma, New Balance, Asics, Brooks, and Saucony.
Bid Strategy - Lowest cost - utilizing budget to generate the maximum number of results possible at the lowest cost per result/CPA.
Delivery type - Standard - this would divide our budget evenly over the scheduled dates.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

TikTok ads:

*Above is a mockup of a TikTok ad that we would create, promoting the Adidas x Parley collection, while informing customers on how they can help end plastic waste and save the oceans, by directing them to the Adidas x Parley landing page.

Adidas has the TikTok pixel installed on their website, so we would be able to easily track conversions/purchases directly related to our TikTok campaign ads. We would utilize in-feed ads, video ads, and carousel ads.

•Objective - Conversions

•Audience - Our audience would be similar to that of Meta. We would target all genders,

ages 13-54 (lower age range than Meta given TikTok’s main audience and that children can influence their parent’s purchase decision).

•Location - United States

•Interests - Terms used: sustainability, recycling, environment, fashion, footwear, running, walking, athletics. We would also include the names of competitors in our interest targeting, for those who have expressed interest in Nike, Under Armour, Puma, New Balance, Asics, Brooks, and Saucony.

•Bid Strategy - Lowest cost - utilizing budget to generate the maximum number of results possible at the lowest cost per result/CPA.

•Delivery type - Standard - this would divide our budget evenly over the scheduled dates.

It’s important for Adidas to include TikTok in their advertising strategy, as TikTok ads can now reach an estimated adult (18+ audience) of 825 million people worldwide (tik tok ads can also be targeted to the 13-17 age range). Research has shown that TikTok’s largest audience is in the United States at 120,768,500 people.

Research has revealed that in recent years, the attention span of consumers has dropped to a mere 8 seconds. When looking at Meta and TikTok, these platforms will be critical to reach our audiences, as the use of short-form video content has grown significantly in order to target consumers.

Sources:

TikTok Ad Mockup Generator: https://www.inbeat.co/ad-mockup-generator/tiktok/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-advertising/

https://krausgroupmarketing.com/marketing-strategy/average-consumer-attention-span-has-dropped-again-in-2022/#:~:text=An%20average%20of%208%20seconds,the%20average%20consumer%20attention%20span.

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/social-media-trends-all-marketers-need-know

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Website Personalization Goals

Premium experience – inspiring love for the brand & desire for products.
Connected – providing digital touchpoints across channels to enhance customer journey.
Personalized – Keeping content relevant and interesting to consumer and respecting interactions through targeting audiences.
Increase engagement (length of stay on pages, interactions, etc.).
Increase conversions.
Drive an increase in revenue, ROI, and ROAS.
Increase promotional coupon redemptions.
Increase app downloads.
Encourage Adiclub rewards program sign ups.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

– Website personalization is a critical component in Adidas’ digital marketing strategy. In a Salesforce interview with Joseph Godsey, the former Head of Digital Brand Commerce, it was stated that the overall goal for Adidas’ digital strategy is to create, “a premium, connected and personalized digital experience.” The company achieves this by utilizing the various platforms that Salesforce has to offer.

– Salesforce provides the opportunity for Adidas to collect 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party consumer data (develop unique consumer identifiers) to then enhance the customer journey across touchpoints, and offer targeted promotions, deals, recommended/recently viewed products, and more on the website through desktop and mobile.

– The main goals of a personalized website experience include:

•Increase engagement (length of stay on pages, interactions, etc.)

•Increase conversions (Adidas product purchases)

•Drive an increase in revenue, ROI, and ROAS

•Increase promotional coupon redemptions

•Increase the various Adidas mobile app downloads

•Encourage Adiclub rewards program sign ups.

– According to Nuno Pedro (former VP of Consumer Engagement & Performance), he stated in an interview with Salesforce that Adidas implements an API driven approach to connect touchpoints, and in regards to the digital strategy, “the mobile app has helped open doors for Adidas.”

Adidas website is personalized based on each consumer’s online behavior. The company uses Salesforce to gather unique consumer identifiers (cookies, mobile i.d., email) through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data to customize what each viewer sees on the Adidas website and mobile apps, and manage the customer journey across channels.

When considering the importance of website personalization for Adidas, research has revealed that, “Done right, web personalization means understanding and meeting your visitors’ interests,

tailoring your website to fit their profiles, and ultimately providing them with a relevant experience—whether that’s a message, visual, content, or offer.” Additionally, it’s been discovered that 87% of companies

see a lift in key metrics (conversion rates, engagement rates, lead generation, etc.) when they implement website personalization.

Adidas does a very effective job of providing a personalized website experience. Returning visitors to the website will see these targeted messages:

“Still Interested” banner – Directly on the homepage, under the seasonal/promo banner, a “Still Interested?” info bar will appear with a carousel listing of products recently viewed.
“Top Picks for You” inline content– When browsing pages, “Top Picks For You” shows up at the bottom of the page with a carousel listing of products to review.
”Recently viewed” inline content– Similar to the “still interested” info bar, when you are on a product page and scroll toward the bottom, this recently viewed section appears with a carousel of products.
”You May Also Like” inline content with a carousel of products.

Additional website personalization methods include:

Similar Interest Targeting - Adidas displays what like-minded shoppers are purchasing as “Others Also Bought” inline content when you view a product and scroll toward the bottom of the page.
Value offers - inline and pop-up promotions are featured as you browse categories on the website like new arrivals, best sellers, etc.
Dynamic CTAs - there are clear call-to-actions throughout the website, such as “Join the Adiclub,” “Don’t Miss out on Free Shipping,” etc.

For the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas could create a personalized website experience by featuring sustainability banners/Run for the Oceans campaign banners to those who express an interest in sustainable products.

Opportunities for the future:

– Utilize A/B testing to specific audiences for various homepage targeting and promotions throughout the year, based on previous interests and interactions on the website.

– Personalize blog articles featured for returning visitors by creating a “You May Also Like to Read” callout on the blog landing page, and/or toward the bottom of the homepage. This could increase length of stay on the website, and in turn increase conversion rate.

–Create more pop-ups with value, such as seasonal catalog downloads,

Sources:

Salesforce interview with Joseph Godsey - https://www.salesforce.com/video/3478697/

Salesforce interview with Nuno Pedro - https://www.salesforce.com/video/3642817/

Salesforce interview with Joseph Godsey - https://www.salesforce.com/video/3478697/

Salesforce interview with Nuno Pedro - https://www.salesforce.com/video/3642817/

Marketo - https://blog.marketo.com/2016/03/introducing-the-definitive-guide-to_web-personalization.htm

Screenshots from: https://www.adidas.com/us

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Website Personalization Methods: AdiClub & Mobile/Apps

The AdiClub rewards program is featured on the website in info banners and pop-ups for visitors to enroll and receive exclusive benefits.
Utilize the various Adidas mobile apps (store app, Confirmed app for product launches, Runtastic, and Training).
Mobile app exclusive promotions and deals.
Saved items page for mobile and desktop.
Geo-fencing for location-based targeting (store locations & in-store events and exclusive promotions/deals).
Beacon technology depending on new consumer privacy settings for mobile (iOS, etc.).

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

– Additionally, it’s important for Adidas to promote the Adiclub rewards program. At the bottom of the website pages, Adidas features a visible banner encouraging consumers to sign up for exclusive promotions and deals through the Adiclub, while also offering 15% off to new members. They also incorporate targeted Adiclub pop-up promotions to motivate customers to sign up.

– The Adidas website is responsive on mobile web browsers, such as Google Chrome, which is extremely important, as research has revealed that 48% of global website visits come from mobile and 63% of domestic website visits in the United States come from mobile devices.

– A recent article further expressed the importance of incorporating mobile apps to create a personalized customer experience. They referenced the Runtastic app by Adidas and stated that, “Brands like adidas are expanding their presence in the lives of their customers by providing digital experiences that make a positive impact with the help of hyper-personalization.”

– Adidas strives to provide a streamlined customer experience, including relevant promotions and personalizations that will resonate with consumers. Research has found that, “Nearly 75% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when the content (ex. offers, ads, and promotions) that appears has nothing to do with their interests.” Additionally, data from Rocket Fuel revealed that the average bounce rate for a website is 55%, demonstrating that more than half of the people that visit sites leave almost as soon as they enter. Website personalization can help to engage consumers and keep them on the website for longer periods of time.

– Adidas has created many relevant and engaging mobile applications, such as the 1) main store app, 2) the Confirmed app for product launches, 3) Runtastic for tracking runs and joining local events, and 4) a training app. When a user downloads the main mobile app, they are met with various personalization options for notifications and store/local offers (by allowing location tracking in the app). Furthermore, various offers and wishlist options pop-up when using the mobile app as well (once an account is created, customers can save products and add them to their cart, and once the app tracks customer behaviors/interests, even more targeted content will be present, including logging in for personal shop recommendations).

– The mobile app provides store locations, exclusive giveaways, and targeted events in the customer’s local area by using geo-targeting. An example of a targeted event is the hype card promotion in Canada. In 2020, an Adidas store in Vancouver, Canada, held an event where only local customers and twitter followers were provided a secret location to receive a “hype card.” The customers then were directed to a new store in Vancouver to see if their “hype card” would win a prize in the store. This promotion was successful since “76% of total entries opted for the Adidas newsletters and helped them spread the news of their new store.” From sales in store, to additional events, mobile app users can stay connected to what’s happening with Adidas locally.

– Adidas uses targeted in-app surveys to engage users and to better serve their needs as well.

– Moreover, Adidas also uses beacon technology to assist with product inventory in their stores. Geo-fencing technology is used with the Adidas Confirmed app and pre-ordered shoes. According to a recent article, the app’s technology allows it to, “verify a customer’s location to prevent computer systems from gaming the system and interfering with launches via social media promotions…consumers interested in purchasing the brand’s limited-edition sneakers can receive push notifications when a release is nearing, and promptly reserve a specific shoe size and location for pick-up within the app.” The article further states that this creates the ideal customer experience, “The retailer maximizes the value of their inventory, while the consumer avoids uncertainty and annoying lines.”

Sources:

Zippia Mobile vs. Desktop: https://www.zippia.com/advice/mobile-vs-desktop-usage-statistics/

The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience article: https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2021/11/02/personalized-retail-experiences/

Marketo - https://blog.marketo.com/2016/03/introducing-the-definitive-guide-to_web-personalization.htm

Top 5 successful implementations of NFC technology https://blog.beaconstac.com/2020/06/successful-nfc-campaigns/

Adidas corners mobile pre-orders with footwear reservation app https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/adidas-corners-pre-orders-with-footwear-sectors-first-reservation-app

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Adidas Email Personalization: Abandoned Cart & Post-Purchase Emails

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

If a subscriber leaves items in their cart, they will receive an “abandoned cart” email. The email is intended to be personalized with the customer’s name in the subject line; however, without the person’s name, the email subject line looks more like a typo, rather than personalized.

When making a purchase, AdiClub rewards members will receive their confirmation email with a customer feedback survey at the bottom. The email includes a “Need Help” section that provides customer service resources.

After making a purchase, a separate “level up” email will be sent out, offering a coupon for a higher amount than the initial email (the coupon % off increases as new levels are achieved).

Following these initial emails, subscribers receive another email describing the rewards program in depth.

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Run for the Oceans - Targeted Email Campaign Strategy

When looking at specific campaigns, Adidas utilizes AI through Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Adidas creates automated, dynamic emails, sending the best content to each customer at the right time.
Relevant email assets are selected and displayed to resonate with subscribers.
Feature “products you may like” at the bottom of their email campaigns.

Run for the Oceans Email

Run for the Oceans Landing Page

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

When looking at specific Adidas email campaigns, Adidas uses AI for email personalization so that global customers receive relevant content and offers to match their interests and needs. According to a recent article, in the post-COVID world, Adidas increased their focus on sharing personalized content to encourage people to pursue their health and fitness goals. They utilize data points to target customers, such as language, location, and product interest, through Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This is extremely beneficial when promoting events, such as the Run for the Oceans campaign.

While utilizing Salesforce’s predictive intelligence capabilities, Adidas has created an automated, dynamic email solution that allows them to send the best content to each customer at the right time. By utilizing AI, they can customize content from a standard template, allowing the most relevant email assets to be selected and displayed to resonate with subscribers. This strategy helps to raise brand awareness, while offering a personalized customer experience, and encouraging consumers to discover new products.

According to Hubspot, email personalization is extremely effective and they found that, “segmentation of email campaigns alone can increase revenue by up to 760%.” They also revealed that, “59% of customers trust businesses using AI to personalize their experience.”

Additionally, It’s important to include personal recommendations, as Statista uncovered that 67% of customers use these recommendations when shopping for products. Adidas does an excellent job of including “products you may like” at the bottom of their email campaigns.

The screenshots above are from an email that was sent as a part of the Run for the Oceans campaign. We have analyzed the email by considering what works well and recommending opportunities for improvement.

Subject: Let’s Tackle Plastic Pollution

Body: When Earth’s largest ecosystem is threatened by plastic waste, there’s only one thing we can do: team up to turn the tides. Our major milestone? To eliminate the use of virgin polyester in our products by 2024. Now it’s your turn. Show your support for our oceans with the latest Adidas x Parley collection, available now.

This email could have been more personalized by including the customer’s name in the subject line. For example: “Sierra, Let’s Tackle Plastic Pollution.” Adidas does a great job of keeping subject lines in their emails to an average of 35 characters, which is between the recommended 9 to 60 characters. Although, it’s also been suggested that better open rates can be achieved by keeping the character length below 36 characters, and Adidas just makes the target for this goal.

The body of the email is well done – Adidas includes content that matches the subject line, and makes it visually appealing for subscribers with images to illustrate their point.

An important trigger incorporated into this email is targeted landing pages. Adidas utilizes the Adidas x Parley, Run for the Oceans, landing page to direct customers to participate, learn about products, and learn how they can make a difference in saving the oceans while reducing plastic waste.

This type of email could be triggered to send out to customers who, 1) visit the Adidas blog posts on sustainability, 2) review the Ultraboost shoes, 3) visit any of the products that fall within the “End Plastic Waste” category, and 4) search for “sustainability” on the Adidas website.

Additionally, to promote the Run for the Oceans campaign, it’s important to send out multiple emails surrounding the event, and emails promoting the sustainable Adidas x Parley product line.

The subject lines of these three emails were:

“Run for the Oceans is back!”
”Marine plastic pollution is threatening our planet”
”New drops: Ultraboost 21 x Parley & Ultraboost 6.0 DNA”

These three subject lines fall into a few of the eight common themes that are effective for emails from our Topic Notes this week – news, curiosity, urgency/scarcity (limited edition products - new drops), and offers.

There are prominent headlines included in the body of the emails, such as “Together, Let’s run,” and “Run for the Oceans Collection.”

The body copy is short, yet informative, providing details on the campaign event, along with facts about plastic waste/sustainability. The copy includes:

”For every km you run, jog, walk or wheelchair, Adidas and Parley’s global cleanup network will remove the equivalent weight of 10 plastic bottles (up to 500,000 pounds) from beaches, islands, and coastal communities. Join Run for the Oceans now to help end plastic waste. Every km counts!”
Above the event sign up CTA: Hot tip: Creators Club members get 50 points for signing up.
“Learn more” CTA directing subscribers to the Adidas x Parley landing page, so that they can learn more about ending plastic waste, and the Adidas x Parley collaboration, while also discovering how to get involved with the Run for the Oceans event.

Further, one of the emails surrounding the campaign promoted the, “limited edition Ultraboost drops – a new way to think about materials and the way we use them.” By stating that the products are “limited edition,” this creates a sense of urgency to purchase the shoes. There is a “shop the collection” CTA, directing customers to the limited edition Adidas x Parley sustainable product landing page. This will help encourage subscribers to learn more about the available products and sustainability initiatives, and hopefully result in a purchase.

Sources:

https://email.uplers.com/blog/how-5-brands-leveraged-salesforce-marketing-cloud-reach-more-customers/

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34146/7-excellent-examples-of-email-personalization-in-action.aspx

https://mailchimp.com/help/best-practices-for-email-subject-lines/#:~:text=Keep%20it%20short,9%20words%20and%2060%20characters.

https://www.panoramata.co/marketing-strategy-brand/adidas

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Email KPIs

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Research has revealed that retail holds the lowest email open rate by industry, at 17.1%, and the biggest increase in open rate year-over-year (up 4.5% from the previous year).

Additionally, when looking at the statistics across all industries, it’s been determined that average email open rates are between 15% to 25%, average email click-through-rates are about 2.5%, and average email click-to-open rates are between 20% to 30%.

While keeping these industry standards in mind, the goal for the Adidas x Parley campaign is to have an average open rate of ideally 20% (the middle of the overall industry average, while above the common retail average). For click-through-rate, the goal is to achieve between 2 to 5%, and around 25% (or higher) for click-to-open rate .

Email campaigns can help to increase customer retention, brand loyalty, customer interaction, revenue, and feedback. When considering ROI, research has shown that the average through email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent (invest a dollar in email marketing and receive 36 times from it). Reports have further stated that, “of all the email campaigns being sent, targeted emails and segmented emails drive 36% of email marketing ROI.”

According to the Direct Marketing Association, 66% of consumers have made a purchase online due to an email marketing message. A survey from eMarketer revealed that email marketing drives 25% of the overall revenues from those companies that they surveyed. These statistics show just how important email marketing is for a company’s overall success. Further, it was also discovered that email marketing can drive even more conversions if a coupon is included in the email content.

Adidas does a great job of including promotions/discount coupons in their email marketing initiatives. Ideally, Adidas would like to see an ROI of close to $45 (or higher) for every $1 spent, as the retail industry average is 45:1 ($9 higher than the overall industry average). This target ROI would greatly contribute to overall sales/revenue for the company.

Sources:

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/

https://myemma.com/blog/what-are-good-open-and-click-through-rates-for-email-campaigns/#:~:text=A%20quick%20look%20at%20average%20industry%20benchmarks&text=Here%20are%20significant%20numbers%20to,Between%2020%20to%2030%20percent.

https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/what-is-the-roi-of-email-marketing/

Data and Email Campaign Performance chart from: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/email-marketing-roi/

ROI by Industry chart and data from: https://www.litmus.com/blog/infographic-the-roi-of-email-marketing/

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Paid Search Ads

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

SEM campaign would promote the Adidas x Parley landing page to increase website conversions.

•Keywords:

1. Run for the Oceans

2. Adidas x Parley

3. Recycled shoes

4. End plastic waste

5. Ultraboost

These ads contain enticing headlines to draw customers in, combinations of “Run for the Oceans | Adidas x Parley | End Plastic Waste | Shop the Collection.” The descriptions include detailed information, such as “Adidas x Parley teamed up to help end plastic waste through the power of sport and shoes” and “Check out the new recycled Ultraboost product collection. Get ready to Run for the Oceans.” The sitelinks are relevant as they have titles such as, Run for the Oceans, Adidas x Parley Collection, New Ultraboost, and End Plastic Waste, and they lead customers directly to the specific pages on the site (for example, the Adidas x Parley collection would go directly to that product page, the End Plastic Waste would go to the Adidas x Parley overall landing page, etc).

Sources:

SEM Mockup Generator: https://nordicclick.com/resources/google-ads-preview-tool/

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Marketing Investment Model

Stages	Marketing Used by Stage	Volume	Velocity	Efficiency	Weighted Value
Stage 1: Awareness	Social media, video, blog, email, traditional advertising	30M	7 days	22%	(30M X .22) X 30 gram plastic bottle
Stage 2: Interest	Google Search/Display/ YouTube, website, in-app messaging, and POE social content.	15M	14 days	44%	(15M X .44) X 30 gram plastic bottle
Stage 3: Desire	Website and in-app promotions, retargeting/marketing email campaigns, paid social ads tailored to retargeting	10.5M	14 days	63%	(10.5M X .63) X 30 gram plastic bottle
Stage 4: Action	Complete the 20km run on the Runtastic App	6.7M	17 days	100%	Total- 594M Grams of Plastic (this equals about 1.3M pounds of plastic)

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

The Run for the Oceans campaign had multiple objectives. For this weighted pipeline we focused on the end plastic waste goal of the campaign. We looked at the metric of total number of people to participate in the Run for the Oceans event through the Runtastic App, and the quantity of plastic waste pick up associated with their participation. The plastic waste pick up is used in the weighted value in lieu of a dollar amount.

One observation that we made through this model is that the amount of plastic that Adidas x Parley offered to pick up does not align well with the total number of participants, and the total time participants spent running.

Adidas x Parley offered to clean up the equivalent weight of a plastic bottle for every 10 minutes run in the Run for the Oceans campaign. The companies set a limit of up to 250,000 kg / 500,000 lbs that would be picked up. Our calculations in the weighted pipeline were based on picking up one 30g bottle of water per participant. Even with using this smaller metric of 30g per participant instead of a plastic bottle per 10 minute increment, our weight measurement superseded the maximum that Adidas x Parley offered to pick up (the total came out to approx. 1.3M lbs of plastic).

For future campaigns, it seems like the organizations need to figure out how to increase their capacity to pick up plastic waste, or create another layer of benefit for runners to participate and help end plastic waste. With 363B pounds of plastic waste in the ocean, 500K lbs of plastic pick up is a minuscule impact on total plastic waste, and of the impact of global shoe waste.

Outside of the observation about the quantity of plastic pick up, we also see through this model that customers spend the majority of their time in the interest and desire stages. During these two stages, we intend to focus our marketing efforts and budget on these strategies to promote the event:

Google Search/Display/YouTube, website, in-app messaging, and POE social content.
Website and in-app promotions, retargeting/marketing email campaigns, paid social ads tailored to retargeting.

It seems as though we have set up our marketing budget from last week (slide 5) appropriately to implement these strategies, and possibly cut down on the time participants are stuck in the interest and desire stages of the marketing funnel.

Below, we have provided clarification around the numbers we used in the weighted pipeline. These are the assumptions we used:

Volume: We based the 30M volume on the amount of web traffic Adidas receives. The volume in stage 2 and stage 3 are assumptions of attrition leading up to the last stage 4, which is the actual number of participants from the Run for the Oceans 2022 event.

Velocity: The figures in stages 1, 2, and 3 are assumptions based on Adidas marketing the Run for the Oceans campaign for 60 days prior to the start of the run.

Sources:

https://dealhub.io/glossary/weighted-pipeline/

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Customer Experience Marketing Overview

Helps to create brand loyalty and trust with consumers
Long-term benefits including improved customer retention and LTV, increased brand loyalty, and an increase in bottom-line revenue.
Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable.

Of people use reviews to guide their purchase decisions.

Of people ages 18-34 trust brands due to their good ratings/reviews.

Of consumers’ purchase decisions are still impacted by negative experiences from 2+ years prior.

Adidas’ NPS score with:

64% Promoters
19% Passives
17% Detractors

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Overview:

Customer experience marketing is the process of putting the customer at the center of the company’s marketing strategy, and driving usage and adoption of products and services to fulfill customer needs. This helps to create brand loyalty and trust with consumers – if they love the products/services, they are more likely to become promoters, and recommend the brand to friends, family, and colleagues.

According to research, this leads to long-term benefits for companies, including increased brand loyalty, improved customer retention, and an increase in bottom-line revenue. The same research also revealed that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t focus on customers. Research also found that 46% of consumers’ purchase decisions are still impacted by negative experiences from 2+ years prior.

Additionally, according to recent data, over 92% of people use reviews to guide their purchase decisions, and 62% of people in the 18-34 age range trust brands because of their good ratings/reviews.

Furthermore, according to Comparably, Adidas has a NPS score of 47 with 64% Promoters, 19% Passives, and 17% Detractors. This score tracks whether Adidas’ customers would recommend buying/using the product based on a scale of -100 to 100. This is an increase from 2021, when the NPS was 39.

Even though Adidas has a strong NPS score currently, there is always room for improvement. It’s important to implement a solid customer experience strategy, and by collecting customer feedback and data from a variety of sources, Adidas will be able to further understand their customers’ needs.

We put together a cyclical customer experience model in the next slide to demonstrate how Adidas can best meet customers’ needs and enhance their overall marketing strategy.

Sources:

https://www.comparably.com/brands/adidas

https://customergauge.com/benchmarks/companies/adidas

https://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/customer-experience-marketing/#:~:text=Customer%20experience%20marketing%20is%20the,services%20to%20fulfill%20customer%20needs

https://www.reviewtrackers.com/reports/customer-reviews-stats/

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Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Cyclical Customer Experience Model:

Step 1: Think in terms of value & education - consider the ideal buyer persona’s needs.

When considering the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas provides content of value surrounding their sustainability initiatives. This includes informative/educational videos exemplifying the importance of reducing plastic waste and how everyone can get involved in their communities to help save the oceans, as well as promoting the Adidas x Parley product collection.

Step 2: Monitor data and incoming reviews/feedback.

It’s important to monitor customer behavior while analyzing data, to see if there is a reason for any gaps/customers dropping off from completing the customer experience journey. Additionally, it’s critical to engage in social listening and monitor reviews that come in through all digital channels (product reviews on website, app reviews, comments on social posts/reviews on social channels).

Step 3: Encourage customers to share feedback.

For Adidas, encouraging customers to share feedback can include sending out surveys via email after an event, such as Run for the Oceans, as well as sending surveys after purchasing a product, or when interacting with the customer service team (surveys via email or over the phone, if a customer service call was placed).

Another option would be to implement focus groups for specific product lines/events, such as the Run for the Oceans event, or the Adidas x Parley product collection, to garner more in depth feedback on the products and customer journey experience.

Additionally, Adidas can encourage customers through social media to share their feedback (social posts to encourage customers to fill out surveys or provide feedback via social media channels).

Step 4: Collect/analyze customer responses.

After collecting feedback from customers, Adidas can analyze survey responses, focus group feedback, social media listening, as well as any other observations.

Through the collection of customer responses, Adidas can analyze how customers are discovering their products and events, what their motivations were for purchasing products or registering for the event, as well as how Adidas’ marketing initiatives are working or can be improved at various touch points in the customer journey.

These strategies will also help Adidas to determine what worked/what didn’t work with events, such as Run for the Oceans, so that they can improve the event moving forward. This also pertains to the Adidas x Parley collaboration products, as Adidas could analyze what customers think of the products, and determine what they can do to improve the collection in the future.

Step 5: Adjust marketing plan based on customer feedback.

It’s important for Adidas to adjust the marketing plan based on the customer feedback collected. This includes, optimizing the target audience, ensuring consistency across all channels, especially when it comes to messaging and user experience, improving data-driven personalization, and continuing to improve and provide excellent customer service via email, chat, or over the phone.

Step 6: Train team accordingly and use automation.

In order for Adidas to provide exceptional customer service, it’s critical to train the team accordingly, and provide all the necessary and up-to-date tools to ensure a successful, positive experience for customers.

Employees need to feel valued and heard, in order to provide the customer with a positive experience. Adidas should remind their team on a regular basis that their contributions matter, and that they are making a difference in the company as a whole, and for the customers.

Adidas can also utilize automation platforms to simplify the process when following up with customers, asking for reviews, or even seeing if they have questions before making a purchase decision. Whether it’s via social media or email (such as abandoned cart emails, etc.), there are many opportunities when it comes to automation tools.

Overall, Adidas has a strong NPS score and prioritizes collecting customer feedback via email, on their website, and through social media, but there is always room for improvement. It’s important for the brand to stay up-to-date on the latest technologies to gather customer responses, in order to best meet their customers’ needs.

Furthermore, research has found that companies can expect customer service and market research to evolve in the future, as customer experience research capabilities have numerous potential data avenues waiting to be leveraged, such as:

Internal customer behaviors, transactions, and profiles.
Third-party data on customer attitudes, purchase preferences, and digital actions.
Social media activity.
IoT data collected in-store or on-location regarding customer health, usage, and sentiment.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

Sources:

https://www.greenbook.org/mr/insights/five-customer-experience-and-market-research-predictions-for-2022/

https://www.fssi-ca.com/improve-your-customer-experience-with-these-proven-marketing-strategies/

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Survey Goals & Sample Questions

Goals for implementing surveys include:

Ensure the company is meeting the customers’ needs and expectations.
Identify sources of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and monitor customer satisfaction over time.
Discover what customers like most about the products/events and what can be improved.
Determine how likely customers are to recommend Adidas and the product(s) purchased.
Determine how customers discover products and what platforms they use to complete their purchases.
Increase NPS and CSAT scores.
Create a more personalized customer experience.
Increase customer retention and LTV.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Surveys are an important aspect in determining the customers’ needs and what they are looking for in specific products, services, and events. By utilizing surveys, Adidas can determine what customers prefer when it comes to footwear, how they can improve their products and events in the future, and how they can enhance their overall customer service experience. This will help Adidas better understand their customers’ needs and help them to create the best possible customer experience, especially when looking at the Run for the Oceans event and the Adidas x Parley product collection.

The goals for implementing surveys include:

– Ensure the company is meeting the customers’ needs and expectations.

– Identify sources of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and monitor customer satisfaction over time.

– Discover what customers like most about the products/events and what can be improved.

– Determine how likely customers are to recommend Adidas and the product(s) purchased.

– Determine how customers discover products and what platforms they use to complete their purchases.

– Increase NPS and CSAT scores.

– Create a more personalized customer experience.

– Increase customer retention and LTV.

Sample survey questions that Adidas could implement for product feedback (or substituted for event feedback):

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your overall online, in-store, or mobile app purchase experience?
What is your reason for the score in question #1?
What platform did you use for your purchase (online, in-store, or mobile app)?
How did you hear about the product(s) purchased (for example, Google Search, social media, browsing the website, word of mouth, billboard/store signage, TV ads, etc.)?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend Adidas and the product(s) purchased to a friend, family member, or colleague?
What is your reason for the score in question #5?
What’s your most important priority when searching for footwear?
How could we improve the product(s) or what did you like most?
If applicable, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your experience with the customer service team? How could your experience be improved?
Any additional feedback?

The survey feedback would be essential in helping Adidas modify and optimize their marketing strategy to best meet the needs of their customers. It would also provide them with valuable information on how their customer service team is performing, and based on this feedback, Adidas could ensure that their team has the most up-to-date and efficient tools. Additionally, the survey feedback would help Adidas recognize what is working well with their products/events and what could be improved.

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Engagement Metrics

Email:

Run for the Oceans campaign email open rate, forwards, and click-through rates.

Social Media:

User generated content with the hashtags #RunForTheOceans and #AdidasParley Hashtags on Meta and TikTok.
Impressions for Run for the Oceans posts (paid & owned) on Meta and TikTok.
Increased follower count, likes, comments, and reshares on on Meta and TikTok
Audience Retention- the length of time that viewers watch video content on Meta and
TikTok.

Website:

Run for the Oceans page views and backlinks.
Unique visitors from organic search. Visitors from paid search.
Time on site.

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Performance Metrics

Email:

New email subscribers from the Run for the Oceans campaign, online and in-store sales derived from Run for the Oceans email click-through.

Social Media:

Content reach.
Click through on paid social media ads and owned (organic) posts to Adidas website.
Sales generated through content click through.

Website:

Run for the Oceans page rank.
Share of voice about ending plastic waste and sustainable products.
AdiClub member subscriptions.
Ultraboost product sales.
Runtastic App downloads.
Run for the Oceans registrations.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

With the support of Salesforce, the above metrics will be used to see how well Adidas has met the Run for the Oceans campaign goals.

If Adidas were to use an attribution model to analyze how the Run for the Oceans campaign arrived at the revenue driving KPI for the campaign – Ultraboost shoes – we believe that an algorithm-based model would be the most appropriate for Adidas to use in light of the quantity of data the company has through Salesforce.

Sources:

Week 9 Notes for Cross-Channel Analytics- Module Topic 3: Cross-Channel Campaign Performance

Attribution 101 A guide to true multi-touch attribution:Changing the game with complete data

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-kpis-key-performance-indicators/

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/

https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/what-is-the-roi-of-email-marketing/

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Campaign Synopsis & Growth/Opportunities for Future Campaigns

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Campaign Summary

For this project, we chose the Adidas “Impossible is Nothing” marketing strategy, focusing specifically on the “Run for the Oceans” campaign (Adidas x Parley collaboration, this became an annual marketing campaign).

Objective:

Raise awareness of marine plastic pollution, which is a detrimental environmental threat affecting the oceans.
Rally the support of millions of people, while giving purpose to their running goals.
Allow supporters to track their running achievements through the Adidas Runtastic app.
Promote the Adidas x Parley product line, which donates a portion of sales to the funds.
Encourage users to share their experience utilizing the #RunForTheOceans hashtag.

What is Parley for the Oceans?

An environmental organization & global collaboration network, founded by Cyrill Gutsch in 2012.
Views the ocean as the most important ecosystem on the planet.
Initiative - confront threats to the ocean with creativity & innovation.

Adidas x Parley Collaboration

Partnership began in 2015

Mission - transform the gillnet collected from the oceans into workable material for an Adidas product line.
The material was turned into yarn, first featured in the Ultraboost.
Primeblue product line was produced with high-performance yarn for sports industry made from Parley Ocean Plastic.
By end of 2020, more than 30 million pairs of shoes produced with Parley Ocean Plastic.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

The objective for this marketing campaign is to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution which is hindering our oceans, as this is detrimental to marine life. Adidas partnered with Parley to design products that recycle plastic pollution from the oceans, in order to help save marine life and the planet.

In a nomination for the Shorty Social Awards, the company shared that in collaboration with Parley for this Adidas runtastic campaign, “We aimed to raise awareness on a much larger scale and grow support on a global level. How? By rallying the support of our millions of registered app users all around the world and let them give renewed purpose to their running – in the form of $1 donated for every kilometer run (capped at $ 1.5 million) from 8 – 16 June 2019 to fight marine plastic pollution.”

As a group, our goal for this campaign is to take an in-depth look at the audience of the everyday person, passionate about fitness and sustainability. More specifically, we will be focusing on parents with teenage children.

What is Parley for the Oceans?

Parley for the Oceans is an environmental organization and global collaboration network, founded by Cyrill Gutsch in 2012 (Adidas, 2021). This organization views the ocean as the most important ecosystem on the planet. The initiative is to confront threats to the ocean with creativity and innovation. It is dedicated to raising awareness of the beauty and fragility of our oceans (Adidas, 2021). Parley for the Oceans calls upon artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, fashion designers, journalists, architects, product inventors, and scientists to pave the way for change and alternatives, in order to save our oceans, and help the planet.

What is the Adidas x Parley Collaboration?

In 2015 a partnership began between Adidas and Parley for the Ocean. According to Adidas: “After intercepting and retrieving a heap of indestructible gillnet from the water, described by Material Innovation Manager at Adidas, Kelli George, as ‘a pallet of old, stinky, dead, crab-entangled fishing net,’ our mission was to transform these kilos of gillnet into workable material for a shoe…the illegal deep-sea gillnet was then hand cleaned, dried and prepped, and then sent off to our textile suppliers to be turned into yarn for the Ultraboost prototype’s upper” (Adidas, 2021).

This collaboration set the foundation for innovation and collaboration in the industry, to support the oceans, and end plastic waste pollution. Adidas took initiative to decrease the use of virgin polyester and shift to recycled polyester, and by the end of 2020, more than half of all polyester used was recycled (Adidas, 2021).

Additionally, the Primeblue product line was launched in collaboration with Parley. These products feature a high-performance yarn for the sports industry made with Parley Ocean Plastics. By the end of 2020, Adidas crafted more than 30 million pairs of shoes with Parley Ocean Plastic (Adidas, 2021).

Sources:

Adidas company quote in slide - https://www.adidas.com/us/parley citation:

Adidas and Parley. adidas US. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.adidas.com/us/parley

Adidas runtastic initiatives citation:

Run for the Oceans - together against Marine Plastic Pollution - the shorty awardshttps://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution.

The Shorty Awards - Honoring the best of social media. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2022, from

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

Adidas blog citation:

Adidas. (2021, March). How we turn plastic bottles into shoes: Our partnership with Parley for the Oceans. adidas US. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from

https://www.adidas.com/us/blog/639412-how-we-turn-plastic-bottles-into-shoes-our-partnership-with-parley-for-the-oceans

Image of Ultraboost retrieved from: https://www.goat.com/sneakers/parley-x-ultraboost-4-0-j-core-black-f36731

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Run for the Oceans Campaign – Results

In 2019, while promoting the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries.

Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, and #adidasparley had close to 50k tags.

Adidas implemented organic and paid social media content, as well as sharing user-generated (earned) content from people utilizing the promoted campaign hashtags.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Run for the Oceans Campaign results:

– In 2019, while promoting the Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas had 88 total social media postings, in 5 different languages, reaching around 26 million people in over 190 countries. These results were from promoting brand awareness through social media channels, emails, and in-app messaging.

– Between Facebook and Instagram, the hashtag #runfortheoceans garnered over 100k tags, and #adidasparley had close to 50k tags.

– Adidas implemented organic and paid social media content, as well as sharing user-generated (earned) content from people utilizing the promoted campaign hashtags.

– Adidas collaborated with famous athletes and influencers to promote the products and sustainability initiatives. Examples include: Dominic Thiem (Austrian tennis player), Ninali Zheng (Chinese heptathlete), Shaunae Miller-Uibo (Bahamian sprinter), Pedri (Spanish footballer), Karlie Kloss (American supermodel) They also partnered with athletic teams and celebrities to create limited Adidas x Parley products. *Limited edition products and sponsorships, such as Stella McCartney line with Ocean Plastic, Premier League Football kits, Major League Soccer Uniforms, as well as many other collaborations.

Product Line Promotion results:

Parley for the Ocean began with producing 3 new UltraBoost running shoe models from plastic waste to support the Run for the Ocean campaign and partnership with Parley, and has since expanded to numerous products made with ocean plastic as a result of their success. Since 2015, Adidas has created more than 30 million pairs of shoes with Parley Ocean Plastic Adidas is known as an industry leader for sustainable retail and for developing shoes from plastic.

Sources:

https://shortyawards.com/4th-socialgood/run-for-the-oceans-together-against-marine-plastic-pollution

https://www.gameplan-a.com/2021/12/the-adidas-sustainability-story-leading-the-change/

https://news.adidas.com/outdoor/three-paths-shaping-adidas--future-to-help-end-plastic-waste/s/25dcbbc9-eaba-4384-a717-39771bfe4521

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Opportunity #1- New Social Media Initiatives

For the next Run for the Oceans campaign, Adidas x Parley could consider implementing three new social media tactics:

Social Media Giveaway,
Posts Supporting Blog Content,
Authentic TikTok Videos.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

Run for the Oceans Giveaway:

– Above is a mockup of an Instagram post promoting an Adidas x Parley Ultraboost Giveaway to take place during the Run for the Oceans event.

•During the event period of May 23rd to June 8th, Adidas would promote the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost Giveaway, and select 10 winners (to be contacted via Instagram).

•Multiple posts promoting the giveaway would go out (3 posts per week for the 3 weeks of the event, as well as 2-3 posts the week leading up to it, in order to create excitement surrounding the giveaway).

•The goal would be to collect earned content utilizing the hashtag #adidasxparleygiveaway.

– Research has shown that, “when a contest is run effectively, it is a great way to build a strong following.” It’s also a beneficial way to build brand awareness surrounding products or events, as well as increasing engagement and potential sales (especially if contest winners try the product for free, love it, and then feel encouraged to buy products from the website, this results in brand trust/loyalty).

– Additionally, the same research discovered, based on a survey, that 55.82% of brands run giveaways on various social networks, but primarily on Facebook and Instagram. This being said, an Instagram giveaway creates a strong opportunity for Adidas to spread awareness surrounding the Run for the Oceans campaign, products, and the sustainability initiatives, while also creating excitement and encouraging people to participate in the event.

—---

Posts supporting blog content

– We recommend creating posts on Meta that we’ll share at least twice per week that tie to blog posts on the Adidas x Parley landing page. By promoting the blog posts on social media, we can encourage customers to visit the landing page and learn more about the Adidas x Parley sustainability initiatives and the campaign’s global mission.

– These social media posts promoting the blog will demonstrate the global impact of Run for the Oceans, encourage people to get involved and support their community to help save the oceans and end plastic waste, while also creating excitement surrounding the Run for the Oceans event.

Run for the Oceans and TikTok:

– Above is a mockup of a TikTok post that could be utilized to feature authentic, “real” people, supporting the Adidas x Parley, Run for the Oceans campaign to help end plastic waste. It is important to keep up with TikTok trends and to consistently post. This being said, we would aim for at least 4 TikTok posts per week to specifically promote the Run for the Oceans campaign.

– Adidas has utilized platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for many years to promote awareness surrounding sustainability. In recent years, Adidas has also implemented TikTok into their digital marketing strategy.

– As stated previously, TikTok is growing in popularity and holds “obvious” appeal for Gen X, even though this platform is often viewed as being geared towards younger audiences. Due to this, Gen X’s children may be influencing parents with TikTok trends and wanting to purchase popular products featured on the platform. This is extremely relevant when considering our persona example, Sierra Miller, who takes into consideration what her daughter needs in proper running shoes and what she is interested in as well. Although, when trying to target Gen X on TikTok specifically, it was found that nostalgia and humor are the most effective content strategies, as opposed to blatant sales pitches.

Sources:

https://nealschaffer.com/6-benefits-of-running-social-media-contests/

https://www.easypromosapp.com/blog/en/2019/01/survey-how-brands-use-social-media-giveaways-today/

Instagram mockup generator: https://zeoob.com/generate-instagram-post/

https://www.adidas.com/us/parley

TikTok mockup generator: https://zeoob.com/generate-tiktok-post/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/03/31/heres-how-brands-can-authentically-connect-with-gen-x/?sh=22345aae1ce4

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Opportunity 2: Run for the Oceans New Email Campaign & Improved Email Personalization

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

This slide features a mockup for a new Adidas email that could be used to promote the Run for the Oceans event and product line.

The subject line states, “Sierra, it’s time to make waves.”

Multiple headlines are visible displaying the “Run for the Oceans” campaign, as well as more information on ending plastic waste (“let’s tackle plastic pollution”).

The “more info” CTA under the “Run for the Oceans” headline would direct customers to the Adidas x Parley, Run for the Oceans, landing page. This would encourage customers to participate, learn about products, and learn how they can make a difference in saving the oceans, while reducing plastic waste.

The body copy is concise and states the main goal of the event, “For every mile you run, jog, walk, or wheelchair, Adidas and Parley’s global cleanup network will remove the equivalent weight of 10 plastic bottles (up to 500,000 pounds) from beaches, islands, and coastal communities. Join Run for the Oceans now to help end plastic waste. Every mile counts!” Beneath the copy, there is a “sign up” CTA that would direct customers to the Adidas x Parley event registration landing page.

The images featured in the body of the email include, volunteers cleaning up the oceans from previous years, as well a few shoes from the new Adidas x Parley product line. Directly below this section, there is a “still interested” headline, featuring products recently viewed by customers. Lastly, the email ends with information surrounding the Adidas app, and icons that link to the various social media pages. The privacy disclosures and opt-out links are at the bottom of the email as well, in accordance with all required email marketing guidelines.

There are several opportunities when it comes to the initial email triggers. Since subscribers must fill out personal information, including a few interests, when joining the Adiclub rewards program, they could send recommended products, along with seasonal promotions and deals right away, instead of waiting to send emails after the first purchase. The screenshots above are a part of the profile details that Adidas asks members to complete. After the initial sign up, at least 5 days went by before receiving another email from Adidas, and even then it was only an abandoned cart email, or after making a first purchase.

As members begin to browse the Adidas website, Adidas tracks favorite products. Targeted emails could be sent out including these favorite products and the discounted price (if the customer were to use their AdiClub points). When considering our buyer persona, Sierra Miller, this type of email would be beneficial to persuade her to make a purchase (since she was indecisive with the various running shoe options).

Another trigger that Adidas could implement is using the customer’s name in the email subject line, as well as including even more personalized questions when joining the program, in order to target customers with products further based on those responses. Research has revealed that recognizing customers through personalized promotional emails have 29% unique open rates and 41% more unique click-through-rates, “using your reader’s first name in the subject line of your email makes them feel valued.”

Additionally, they could send targeted emails with triggers, such as blog articles and relevant information, surrounding the customer’s interests (for example, emails based on the company’s sustainability initiatives for customers such as our persona, Sierra Miller, and her daughter).

For the Run for the Oceans campaign specifically, Adidas can implement triggered emails to send out based on customers viewing sustainable products on their website. When a customer is viewing these products, there is a high likelihood that they would be interested in participating in the Run for the Oceans event, and to learn more about the sustainability initiatives.

Sources:

https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/personalization-in-email-subject-lines/#:~:text=Recognizing%20your%20customer%20and%20giving,email%20makes%20them%20feel%20valued

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Landing Page Opportunities

Continue to direct ads to the landing page: https://www.adidas.com/us/runfortheoceans and make modifications including, but not limited to:

Revise the website layout so that Adidas products are above the fold.

Add “Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans” as the headline for the landing page.

Slide – Molly De Wald & Jazz Dottin

The current landing page for Run for the Oceans campaign provides useful information to convert leads; however, there is room for improvement.

First, we recommend adding the headline “Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans” to the landing page to help web crawlers index the page so it can be retrieved for relevant search queries. The current landing page does not appear to have a headline if you review the page source coding. Additionally, adding the headline text “Adidas x Parley Run for the Oceans” will make the page accessible to people using screen readers who may not be able to read the graphic logo for Run for the Oceans.

Next, we recommend reorganizing the content of the page so that the products are featured above the fold rather than tucked down on the the fourth block of the page. Since website purchases/conversions are the goal for paid social advertising and SEM, the products should be immediately available for customers to view once they click through ads to this landing page.

Lastly, we would would apply the following revisions to the existing website organization to improve the user experience navigating the page, and these edits to the copy to improve onsite SEO.

H2: 6,760,161 PARTICIPANTS, 771,225,511 MINUTES. TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, THANK YOU!

Normal Text: Run for the Oceans 2022 may be over, but our journey to help end plastic waste doesn't end here. We'll work with Parley to clean up 500,000 lbs of plastic waste from our beaches, islands and coastal communities. Find out more on how our choices can make a difference. (add a hyperlink on the “Find Out Now” that allows visitors to jump down to the section on “End Plastic Waste,” “Parley,” and “Adidas Runners”)

H2: INNOVATION IS OUR SOLUTION

Carousel of Adidas sustainable products

H2: TOGETHER, WE RAN FOR THE OCEAN (added “for the ocean” to this H2 text)

See what we achieved in 2022.

Watch Film box

H2: Run for the Oceans POWERED BY ADIDAS (revised H2 text from the original phrase “Powered by”)

Adidas Logo Graphic — add a CTA below the graphic to view & download the Adidas Runtastic app

H2: TOGETHER WITH OUR PARTNERS

Graphics of partners

End Plastic Waste graphic

H3: END PLASTIC WASTE

Normal Text: Plastic waste is a problem. Innovation is our solution.

LEARN MORE

Parley logo graphic

H3: PARLEY

Normal Text: From a shoe woven from re-imagined fishing nets to a movement for the oceans.

LEARN MORE

Adidas runners logo graphic

H3: ADIDAS RUNNERS

Normal Text: Discover our global community of runners.

LEARN MORE

Sources:

https://www.adidas.com/us/runfortheoceans

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/crawler