If you're a marketer in the sport and active lifestyle sector, I have good news and bad news when it comes to meaningful brand loyalty.
The good news? Your boss wants you to increase brand awareness, optimize resources, and drive better ROI.
The bad news? Your boss wants you to achieve all this in an environment where traditional marketing approaches are about as effective as a chocolate teapot.
The problem isn't that these expectations are unreasonable - they're perfectly sensible. The problem is that most marketers tackle them with the creativity of a tax return: spreadsheets, attribution models, and ROI calculations that would make an actuary's heart sing.
But here's the rub: people don't behave in ways that are predictable. In fact, they hardly ever do, and that's where k.ble comes into play.
1. Brand Awareness: Or, How Not to Be the Gym Membership Everyone Forgets About
In sports, as in life, awareness isn't just about being seen—it's about being remembered. Yet, many brands treat marketing like a New Year's fitness resolution: enthusiastic, overcommitted, and entirely forgotten by February. They make a big swing, hit or miss, then move on.
Consider Peloton. Once the darling of at-home fitness, it saw its valuation plummet from a pandemic peak of $50 billion to approximately $1.7 billion. The lesson? Engagement isn't a one-time sale; it's an ongoing relationship. Peloton's initial success was built on community and engagement, but as challenges arose, it became clear that maintaining brand loyalty requires continuous effort and adaptation.
Imagine if Peloton had considered real relationship rewards for their audience, not just incentive hooks to keep a subscription payment going.
k.ble avoids this pitfall by integrating brands into how people actually live and move. By connecting with platforms like Strava, Apple HealthKit, and Google Fit. Then, brands can be part of the ongoing action in that consumers life, not just another banner ad screaming into the void. Your brand isn't just known—it's experienced.
2. ROI: The Holy Grail Everyone Looks for in the Wrong Places
Ah, ROI. The marketer's white whale. The more we chase it, the more it seems to slip beneath the waves.
Want to know why? Because most ROI calculations assume people make rational decisions. Spoiler alert: they don't.
Take Le Col's Cycling Club. By using k.ble's platform to reward cyclists based on their activity, they achieved a 300% increase in customer value. Not through a flashy ad campaign, but by tapping into the psychology of motivation—rewarding behaviour that was already happening.
If you want better ROI, stop thinking of marketing as a cost centre and start viewing it as an investment in behavioural change.
3. Resource Allocation: Or, Why You Shouldn't Spend £10M on a TV Ad That No One Watches
Think about brands that sponsor global sporting events. Many pour millions into campaigns that get lost in the cacophony. McDonald's, for instance, invested heavily in Olympic sponsorships, only to face criticism because, well, fast food and peak athletic performance aren't exactly two peas in a pod.
Contrast this with brands who create not only experiences but actively foster positive relationships with their consumer, they engage at the grassroots level, creating bonds that last. k.ble consults to help brands in allocating resources based on real consumer behaviour, not just marketing myths. Instead of guessing where your audience is, why not use actual behavioural data to find them?
The Takeaway: Ask Yourself a Better Question
Most marketers are fixated on, "How do I prove my marketing works?" Instead, they should be pondering, "How do I make marketing work better? Creating value that keeps the customer engaged"
k.ble isn't about making marketing more measurable—it's about making it more effective to create loyal fans of a brand, measurement is the easy part. If you want to impress your boss, stop trying to be more efficient and start being more engaging.
Now, the obvious next step: explore the k.ble case studies. They demonstrate precisely how brands are leveraging this approach to drive tangible commercial value. And if you don't, well... good luck explaining to your boss why your marketing budget was squandered on yet another forgettable campaign.