Brand awareness and digital audio – lessons from the “La Salle de Sport with Reebok” campaign (France)

For its 2020 relaunch, La Salle de Sport with Reebok, located in the heart of Paris, opted for a cross-disciplinary digital audio campaign, supported by a number of targeted influencers. It was an extremely successful brand awareness strategy that could inspire numerous brands to take advantage of the unprecedented benefits of digital audio in terms of brand awareness.

Context

In early 2020, La Salle de Sport with Reebok, in the heart of the Madeleine district, on an exceptional site covering more than 1,700 m2, held its relaunch. The social club/shop/gym offers intensive multi-disciplinary classes in a setting dedicated to performance. As well as being an animated hub and events venue, plus a concept store, the gym itself is structured around 4 areas of activity: crossfit, boxing, cycling and yoga-pilates.

Specific, localised target

The advertiser’s objective, set with Targetspot France, was threefold: brand recognition, traffic and conversion.

To achieve this, it was necessary to “set up a complete 360-degree campaign, combining audio, video and influence,” explains Orson Speight, account manager for Targetspot France. “We literally pulled all of the available digital audio levers, but on a local level.”

It was a muscular demonstration of the power digital audio has to reach a perfectly targeted audience:

• men and women from 21 to 50 years old
• living in Paris and its suburbs
• with a marked interestin sport and wellness
• committed to New Year’s resolutions (in early 2020).

The campaign was able to rely on audio targeting technologies designed to simultaneously target:

• location
• demographic
• affinity (sport and wellness).

360° digital audio campaign

The digital audio campaign set up by the Targetspot France teams combined complementary, harmonised channels:

• Podcast sponsoring on Radio France
• Audio ad streaming (Soundcloud)
• The participation of 4 influencers who shared playlists
• More conventional Internet and social network display ads

The 4 influencers were selected on the basis of the advertiser’s DNA:

• Former Miss France Laury Thilleman
• NBA presenter on beIN Sports Rémi Reverchon
• Crossfit coach Samuel Rousseau
• Sneakers influencer Selma Sebbagh

Awareness boost thanks to digital audio

The targeted campaign around Paris was a success for the brand, whose website visits “literally exploded”, according to Speight. “This resulted in a significant increase in awareness for the brand, which was just launching and which quickly found a level of recognition among its chosen target group.” This was due to the campaign’s multiple distribution channels and “the intimate nature of delivering a message in digital audio, which can be listened to mainly via headphones”.

What can we learn from this operation?

“Today, we have much more powerful and much better targeted levers than with the analogue radio of yesterday, because we can specify precisely who will receive a message over a local, regional, national or even larger territory,” commented Targetspot France’s account manager.

His conclusion: “ This could inspire other advertisers such as equipment manufacturers, the takeaway food sector or the alcoholic/energy drinks industry. In short, any brand that wants to maximise its brand awareness by using a 360° model that is tried and tested and will continue to improve as digital audio targeting techniques“