BS3988 Digital Marketing Report: Adidas Strategy Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Adidas' digital marketing activities, focusing on the RACE model (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage) and its implementation through social media, content marketing, and email campaigns. It examines Adidas' strategies for reaching users via platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and how the company uses content to represent its brand culture. The report also explores the 'Convert' aspect, detailing how Adidas uses email marketing with attractive visuals and offers to drive conversions. Furthermore, it compares Adidas' marketing activities with those of competitor institutions like Nike, highlighting differences in social media engagement and content strategies. The report proposes an omni-channel digital marketing campaign, outlining SMART goals, and the redevelopment of a mobile application. Finally, it discusses key factors for online customer acquisition and retention, techniques for determining visitor requirements, integrating online presence, and ethical considerations for the proposed digital marketing plan. Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running Head: DIGITAL MARKETING
Digital Marketing
Analysis of Adidas’ digital marketing activities and opportunities
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This business report highlights the digital marketing activities of Adidas. It is found that the
company focus on the RACE model, where the reach their users mainly through social media
marketing- Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube channel. Through content marketing, Adidas
always intends to represent their culture and content for advertising their brands and this is their
Act aspect. Adidas implement convert aspect through sending e-mails or formulated posts that
are attractive and contain images and sent to all the users so that they can get ware of the recent
offers and discounts currently going in their company. They also engage the users through
promotional events that help people to remember their activities and also allow them to build a
strong relationship with the users. The activities involved in redeveloping new mobile
application are found to be the identification of the existing problem, identify the portability of
the application, removing the non-core feature, consulting with an application developer and
integrate analytics along with designing of the application and take feedback. The key factors of
online customer acquisition strategies are accessing new customers through e-mails; update the
content in all the digital platform and aligning search intent to content upgrades. On the other
hand, the customer retention strategies identified in the report are products innovation, offering
them gift coupons and discount and effective communications calendar. The techniques to
determine visitors’ requirements are an option for giving feedback, options for sharing public
posts to the digital channel, utilizing the analytic tool. Integrating different forms of online
presence can be obtained through promoting the offline event online and providing offline sale
online. Lastly, the ethical permutations to the proposed digital marketing plan are detailed
knowledge of the audience, avoidance of biasness, avoiding comprising on piracy issues,
maintaining user privacy and maintaining transparency.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Current digital marketing activities.................................................................................................3
1.1 RACE model................................................................................................................................3
1.1.1 Reach....................................................................................................................................3
1.1.2 Act.........................................................................................................................................5
1.1.3 Convert.................................................................................................................................6
1.1.4 Engage..................................................................................................................................8
2.0 Marketing activities of competitor institutions................................................................................8
3.0 Omni-channel digital marketing campaign proposal.....................................................................14
3.1 Business S.M.A.R.T. goals........................................................................................................14
3.2 Activities involved in redeveloping the new mobile application..............................................15
3.2.1 Identification of the existing problem.................................................................................15
3.2.2 Identify the portability of the application...........................................................................15
3.2.3 Removing the non-core feature..........................................................................................16
3.2.4 Consulting with an application developer..........................................................................16
3.2.5 Integrate analytics...............................................................................................................16
3.2.6 Designing of the application and take feedback.................................................................16
3.3 Key factors of online service quality for customer acquisition and retention...........................17
3.3.1 Customer acquisition strategies..........................................................................................17
3.3.2 Customer retention strategies.............................................................................................17

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3.4 Techniques to determine visitors’ requirements........................................................................18
3.5 Integrating different forms of online presence..........................................................................18
4.0 Factor in ethical permutations to the proposed digital marketing plan.........................................19
5.0 Reference List and Bibliography...................................................................................................21

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1.0 Current digital marketing activities
Adidas is sports apparel and accessories headquartered in Germany. Adidas is Europe's
largest sportswear manufacturer and ranks second after Nike. Adidas holdings comprised of
many groups- Reebok sportswear company, Runtastic, an Austrian fitness technology company,
TaylorMade golf company and Bayern Munich, the football club (Adidas 2018). Ryan (2016)
stated that digital marketing refers to the term of selling and marketing of products through a
digital platform. Moreover, digital marketing activities illustrate the action of making promotion
and selling of products through search engines, websites, social media, mobile application and e-
mails (Adidas 2018). Digital marketing can be social media marketing, content marketing,
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing,
radio marketing and Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) (Adidas 2018). Adidas utilizes the
approaches for social media marketing, content marketing and email marketing.
1.1 RACE model
1.1.1 Reach
Adidas implements reach their users mainly through social media marketing. The social
media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube channel that is utilized by Adidas.
The organization broadcasted their recent activities in terms of videos and pictures through
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The twitter page of the Adidas contains the re-tweets of other
Adidas brand accounts which allows all other Adidas companies to form altogether (Adidas
2018). Their twitter marketing and trending hashtags allow different athletes to come tether and
share their stories with each other, which furthermore resulted in a strong customer base for the
company.

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Image 1: Twitter page of Adidas
(Source: Twitter.com 2018)
In terms of their Facebook page, Adidas have a lot of brand channels each for their different
sectors for their company that are- Adidas Originals, Adidas Football, Adidas Rugby, Adidas
NEO Label, Adidas Basketball and Adidas Football US (Facebook 2018).

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Image 2: Adidas facebook page
(Source: Facebook 2018)
1.1.2 Act
Through content marketing, Adidas always intends to represent their culture and content
for advertising their brands. Adidas focuses on the how the athletic wear their company’s
products define their culture in front of their potential audience (Facebook 2018). Digital media
is volatile and thus in order to make the message of the company more convincible, company
add values, ideas, convictions and behaviours for developing the most effective content. Adidas
align internal and external messaging, utilizing the user's most preferable perception for choosing
words for the content of their advertising. Moreover, the online marketing department of the

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company focuses on the visual to share the accurate outcome from the companies to the users.
Videos, blogs, and social media posts are highly utilized by Adidas so that more people get
aware of their brands. Moreover, Adidas opted for the concept of story-asking rather than story
telling and invite audiences to contribute the story of their experience that can provide relevance
and authenticity to the stories that their advertisement has broadcasted till now.
1.1.3 Convert
Adidas sent e-mails or formulated posts that are attractive that are easy to understand.
The e-mail contained images and sent to all the users so that they can get ware of the recent
offers and discounts currently going in their company. Addidas also provide multiple signup
options like ‘newsletter signup’ and ‘email-only’. The signup also offers 15% off coupon and
newsfeed of the exclusive promotions (Chaffey and Smith 2013). Once signed up, an automated
welcome email is generated says “The Journey Starts Here” that triggers the sense of
commitment of the brand with the user. There is a barcode or the subscribers that can be utilized
by the users when they purchase from nay Adidas physical store. The prime benefits that the
organization get from this approach is to identify all of their consumer’s shopping habits.

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Image 3: E-mail content of the Adidas advertisement
(Source: Nielsen Sports 2018)

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1.1.4 Engage
Adidas engage their audience through promotional events that help people to remember
their activities and also allow them to build a strong relationship with the users. In the year 2017,
Adidas invests financial resources to promote their brands by celebrity endorsements. Rising Star
Josh Prenot, who is latest leading swimmer wear the adizero XVI, which is the fastest swimsuit
ever (adidas NEWS STREAM 2018). Racing car driver, Carmen Jorda become the face to
motivate women to push boundaries and seek out new challenges (adidas NEWS STREAM
2018). Adidas also collaborates with Amazon in order to reach people from all over the world.
This will help people to remain engage with Adidas.
2.0 Marketing activities of competitor institutions
As mentioned earlier, Nike is the leading sports shoe manufacturer which is followed by
Nike. This can be witnessed through the respective annual revenue for both of the organization
and it shows that for the year 2016, Nike gained $19.87 U.S. million; while, Adidas incurred
$10.68 U.S. million (Statista 2018). Moreover, for the year 2017, Nike and Adidas incurred
$21.08 U.S. million and $10.36 U.S. million respectively (Statista 2018).

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Image 4: 2010- 2017 Revenue from footwear segment of Nike, Adidas and Puma
(Source: Statista 2018)
Furthermore, Adidas is preferred by 9 of the 24 teams, which make the count of 37% and
they use their manufactured products (Nielsen Sports 2018). 25% of the team preferred Nike,
21% for Puma and 17% for other sports shoe manufacturer (Nielsen Sports 2018). Both of the
brands catalogued superstars for endorsing their brand’s products (Nielsen Sports 2018).

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Image 5: Nike’s and Adidas’ top player endorsements
(Source: Nielsen Sports 2018)
One of the reasons for the high sale of the Nike shows than the Adidas is their great
marketing contents, digital marketing of the sports shoes and updates alternatives for targeting
the users through a digital platform (Nielsen Sports 2018).
Nike utilizes the mobile marketing concepts and displays customised message for the
people in order to attract them more. In this advertisement campaign, Nike showed their
advertisement on the digital billboards that contain a number, which on dialled by the users, they
get the opportunity to phone’s keypad to customize the on-screen shoe (Nielsen Sports 2018).
Users can also get the opportunity to purchase the shoes that are designed by them.
Nike also utilizes the concept of the merging real-world sports performance with the
social marketing and digital marketing (Nielsen Sports 2018). This can be witnessed through
their approach of giving runners the challenge to reach different checkpoints in the citywide to
claim virtual badges for their stamina, endurance and speed.
Moreover, compared to Adidas, Nike wasn’t an official sponsor for the Olympics 2012
yet bought up hundreds of billboards and tube featuring for celebrating everyday athletes;
however, Adidas spent tens of millions pounds for getting the official sponsorship of the
Olympics 2012 (Nielsen Sports 2018). As a result, they got more noticeable during the time in
Twitter. The tweets in the Twitter were 16,000 which is greater than the tweets received for
Adidas that is only 9,295 (Nielsen Sports 2018).