Marketing on the move: Why activity wins customer engagement

TOGETHER WITH

Marketing that moves. Traditional ads just don’t cut it anymore. For brands looking to cut through the noise, Strava for Business has your back. Strava for Business connects brands with Strava’s engaged audience, helping create out-of-the-box campaigns that motivate customers to get out and move. Learn more.

Traditional advertising just isn’t delivering results the way it used to. Customers don’t really connect with it. Their preferences have changed, and the marketers getting results are finding a new way forward.

The campaigns making the most impact are the creative, out-of-the-box ideas. So why are marketers still spending their limited budgets on campaigns that aren’t working?

We teamed up with Strava for Business to better understand marketers’ perspectives on traditional advertising and how they’re seeking out more effective ways to engage with audiences. We sent a survey to both marketers and consumers to get a full picture of how they feel about ad buying and ads in general.

The biggest thing we learned? Marketers’ priorities don’t align with what customers are looking for. We’re breaking down everything you need to know.

Finding the right path

We found that the disconnect between marketers and customers started at the very beginning: There’s no single marketing priority. Marketer respondents were split between prioritizing reach and engagement in their campaigns.

Inertia drives a lot of media spend. After all, it’s easier to keep doing what your brand has always done. Here’s the problem: When asked to describe modern marketing, respondents used words like outdated, crowded, and dying. And even though they know traditional advertising isn’t working, 64% of marketers just keep buying the usual ad formats out of habit.

The decline in engagement with traditional ads isn’t happening in a silo. In our research, 80% of marketers reported that consumers are better at tuning out traditional ads than they were a few years ago.

But privately, marketers and customers alike report that they’re looking for something new. In the research, 69% of marketers said they get jealous when brands activate in a new, cool way. And 75% are very or somewhat open to testing new media channels outside the traditional mix.

When marketers are looking for results in new places, they’re prioritizing audience quality over scale. 48% examine audience quality and engagement when looking for a new media or sponsorship partner.

Only 17.8% of marketers prioritized scale and reach for new channels. This indicates that marketers are open to exploring new channels to try to reach customers, even when it means entering the unknown.

Warming up

You know that saying, “The customer is always right?” It’s true: Customers are tired of the same old, same old, and they’re telling marketers exactly what they want from them moving forward.

Overall, our research found that customers want to reward authenticity and humor from brands. 85% said they stay loyal to brands that feel genuine. The brands that sell too much end up getting punished with low engagement. 88% of respondents agreed that their skepticism of a brand grows the harder it tries to sell them.

Ad fatigue in general is high. 88% of Gen Zers and millennials reported that they tune out most of the ads they encounter. Consumers pay the most attention to streaming TV ads (36%), which came in second only to social media.

But at the same time, 54.3% of customers report that streaming TV ads are customers’ No. 1 most disruptive and annoying ad format. That’s the highest score of any channel we tested, ahead of traditional display/banner ads and website ads.

It takes a standout campaign—one that doesn’t feel disruptive—to break through.

This is where products like Strava’s Sponsored Challenges can make the difference.

Stay on track

Motivational, activity-oriented branding is a genuine differentiator for customers. It’s a proven driver for engagement, and for good reason.

Traditional advertising is static. Often, it sticks to one core purpose: converting customers with a single discount or incentive. Campaigns that promote activity break through the noise, asking customers to take a new action instead of just buying.

Customers and marketers alike are looking for new channels. And creating out-of-the-box means working with nontraditional partners. You already know Strava as the platform that helps you track your workouts and monitor your progress. Now, meet Strava for Business.

On Strava, you can be a source of motivation instead of an interruptive ad. With Sponsored Challenges and Sponsored Segments, brands like Samsung, Chipotle, Vittel, and Salomon engage with millions of people living their best active lives.

Here’s how it works: Sponsored Challenges help reward people for getting active. You can target a cohort of Strava users and motivate them to get active. In return, they can redeem a reward on your website.

Crossing the finish line

Engaged audiences are already on Strava, tracking their progress and interacting with friends. Strava for Business helps brands find new opportunities to engage with these folks in a way that feels authentic, motivating, and positive.

Traditional ads are broken. Ready to hit the ground running with something new? Get started with Strava for Business.