Salomon has been a strong player in the outdoor industry since 1947. They are committed to expanding the limits of possibility and delivering excellent craftsmanship and innovation in all that they do. Their genuine passion for outdoor sports drives them to create progressive, innovative gear, which allows people to fully enjoy and challenge themselves in the outdoors.
The Challenge
Exhilarated off the back of our series of Salomon Trail Running Festivals which had ended only a few weeks previously, it was early summer of this year when Salomon asked us to help them enter the exciting realm of Influencers. We would invite Influencers within the fitness industry to an event with an element of the ‘Unexpected’ in order to reach a new audience via social media with a story and a mystery behind the event to furthermore boost social interaction. We needed to decide what this ‘Unexpected’ element would be and how to interact with our primary targets, the Influencers, in order to reach the wider audience of their followers and promote the incredible accessibility and joy that trail running offers and Salomon enables. Rather than grit and competition so often associated with getting active, this time we wanted to show how wonderful the great outdoors was with the ‘unexpected’ views, experiences, friendships and memories that you make along the way.
The Result
In the lead up to the event, the invited Influencers posted about their invitations, the goodie boxes they had received and commented on one another’s’ pages once they realised who else had been invited on the adventure. An adventure they only knew the basic logistics for; something they made clear was unlike anything they had been part of before.
A carefully sourced strategic partnership to grow the event infrastructure with Kind Bar encouraged participants to wholly embrace the spirit of adventure as they prepared to set off, further aided by the Salomon ambassador athletes who delivered running technique and training tips.
Consisting of a 12km trail run through the stunning Brecon Beacons, the route itself and the final event village was adorned with waterfalls, flowers, (even a very unexpected helicopter) and almost everything quintessentially Instagram…aside a unicorn!
At the end, guests excitedly shared their unique and joyful experience of the run with one another over beautiful food and later online, thus perfectly epitomising Salomon’s ‘unexpected’ reasons to trail run.
Key Social Media Metrics
5360000
TOTAL REACH
37000
TOTAL ENGAGEMENT ACTIONS
34000
LIKES
2300
COMMENTS
“With the #RunUnexpected campaign, we really wanted to set the benchmark for influencer marketing within the outdoor market. We could have simply paid our way to reach a high number of consumers through influencers with a high following, but instead with Brandwave’s help, we approached it from a slightly different angle and recruited a pool of influencers that we knew would continue to share the Salomon story beyond a single post by converting them into true advocatesof the brand and the sport. We well and truly achieved this and we’re looking forward to taking this concept a step further in 2020”
Paul Griffiths
Head of Marketing, Amer Sports UK & NL
