Lacing Up a Revolutionized 1P Personalization Strategy
The Challenge
For decades, footwear and running gear brand Brooks Running kept innovation at the center of its growth strategy. This unrelenting obsession with developing industry-leading technology propelled Brooks to the top spot among casual and competitive runners alike. Now, the brand hoped to bring that same innovative spirit to building stronger relationships with its customers.
As the competitive running market reached saturation, customers came to expect more, viewing brands as their true workout partners. Brooks sought a way to parlay its massive trove of customer data from its running club loyalty program into a robust first-party data strategy that both elevated the runner’s experience and deepened their relationship with the brand.
To help drive this business growth, Brooks called in Tinuiti, its performance marketing firm and experts in raising brand equity.
Results
+32%
Increase in revenue per delivery
+9%
Increase in overall revenue
+20%
Higher click rate compared to standard messages
How We Did It
To take personalization to the next level, Tinuiti helped Brooks leverage the immense data it already had at its fingertips. Its loyalty program, Brooks Run Club, gathered a treasure trove of user data, including their exercise activity, gear preferences, purchase history, and more.
Tinuiti leveraged its expertise with DashLX – an external platform that tracks and aggregates data from wearable devices like smartwatches and then translates it into actionable marketing opportunities. For example, by combining a runner’s activity data from Brooks Run Club with DashLX’s powerful intelligence, Brooks could personally notify a runner when they’ve put 250 miles on a pair of running shoes – and recommend a replacement pair.
Using this powerful tool, Tinuiti and Brooks crafted personalized email campaigns around a runner’s milestones, celebrating their triumphs and recommending Brooks products to keep their momentum.
Using a runner’s product preferences and purchase history from Brooks Run Club, Tinuiti adjusted recommendations based on each user’s preferred gear, further personalizing the email communications. Informed by runners’ purchase history and frequency, Tinuiti built customer segments based on purchase likelihood (e.g., new, hot, warm, cool, cold). This drove more efficient spend on the customers most likely to convert.
As the campaign crossed the finish line, it was clear Brooks had set a new personal best. The personalized email initiative lifted revenue per delivery (measuring the return on all delivered emails) by 32% with a 20% increase in click rates compared to standard messaging. All told, this drove a 9% lift in revenue over Brooks’ previous segmentation strategy efforts.
As Brooks looks to extend reach in the future, it will expand highly personalized messaging into SMS, paid advertising, and direct mail – with Tinuiti as its running partner.
Innovation in personalization has been so important to our growth. Beyond simply recommending new products and gear, we want to use data to cheer on our customers and give them more positive interactions with Brooks. We’re working to build that loyalty while building emotional connection with our runners.
Alexa Rosson
Associate Manager of Customer Relationship Marketing, Brooks Running
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