Sport Chek is rolling out its yoga mat with a new spot aimed at active women.
Though the retailer has sold yoga gear for years, the new spot marks the first time Sport Chek has given the category a major push. The campaign is part of an over-arching effort Sport Chek has made in recent months to better connect with female consumers.
Frederick Lecoq, senior vice-president of marketing at FGL Sports, explained much of the training-themed marketing Sport Chek has done since launching “All Sweat Is Equal” last February has focused on males. With this phase of the campaign, he said the brand wanted to showcase the female training experience.
In addition to the yoga-themed spot, Sport Chek is planning to release a spinning-themed ad in a month’s time. Both were shot by TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. The ads are also shoppable – viewers can click on individual items and purchase them from Sport Chek’s website.
Lecoq told Marketing Sport Chek chose yoga and spinning based both on internal consumer research and consultation with a group of female employees at FGL Sports. Last summer FGL put together a cross-department female focus group to advise Sport Chek on its mission to better serve female consumers. Lecoq now meets with the group twice a month to bounce ideas off them and ask them questions about women and sports.
“It’s very insightful,” Lecoq said. “Usually marketing people stay within marketing and the only research they trust comes from a third party. Every person who works at FGL is active in sports and there are nearly as many women as men. [We thought] why don’t we take time to listen to them?”
.@vanessalewis_ don’t just sub your workout for yoga, add it! Yogi @shannonramdin will show you how. #SweatBetterhttps://t.co/ZpmF0elMdM
— Sport Chek (@SportChek) March 2, 2016
Over the coming weeks, Sport Chek will also feature female employees in creative published on social media. For example, on Tuesday the brand tweeted a video featuring one of its lawyers, Shannon Ramdin, who’s also a yoga instructor.
There are plans for similar content in the coming weeks that will feature yoga instructors and influencers. Those ads will be created by North Strategic, Notch Video and an in-house content team.
The campaign also includes out-of-home and in-store creative. It is being supported by a digitally-focused media buy from Touché. The buy includes YouTube, Facebook and broadcast TV shows skewing towards female viewers.
The campaign also marks the first time Sport Chek has used programmatic video. The brand is running ads for the campaign with TubeMogul. Lecoq said Sport Chek’s decision to test the method for video was motivated by TubeMogul’s recent decision to guarantee viewability by offering refunds on any dollars spent on fraudlent views.
