Home/Case studies/Salomon
Case study - Apparel and outdoor gear
How Salomon reached 350M people without buying ads
Salomon runs a worldwide sports marketing program with thousands of athletes on Roster. No ad spend, no paid influencers, and 26% of the brand's total user-generated content.
Program results
Background
Seventy-five years of word of mouth, with no way to see it
Salomon began making ski equipment 75 years ago. Since then the company has become a household name throughout the world of outdoor sports gear and clothing.
Word of mouth built that brand. What Salomon did not have was visibility into it. The company ran a worldwide sports marketing program spanning thousands of athletes, and wanted to grow it while keeping a close eye on every detail and outcome. Tracking results and finding new ways to engage audiences mattered as much as keeping the process smooth for the team and the athletes.
Phase 1
Automated global athlete management
Salomon moved its sports marketing program off time-consuming, inefficient spreadsheets and onto Roster, centralizing every global ambassador program in one system.
Athletes got their own mobile portal with everything they needed in one place, which let regional teams cultivate local relationships with key athletes without losing the global view.
Large-scale worldwide campaigns were then broken down by country, so each market's message, call to action, and materials could be tailored to its specific needs.
Our athletes love that we have a very structured and organized program. They know what our expectations are and how they're performing. With Roster, it's clear to the athletes that they are meeting their obligations to us. Salomon Sports marketing team
Phase 1 results
350M+ reach and a quarter of all company UGC
The initiative contributed 26% of the company's total user-generated content and connected with an audience of more than 350 million people, without buying an ad or paying an influencer.
For a brand that had spent eight decades building on word of mouth, the change was not that advocacy started working. It was that Salomon could finally see it, measure it over time, and influence it.
Figures as reported by Salomon for the global sports marketing program.
Word of mouth has built our brand over the last 80 years. It's just that we haven't been able to have visibility. Roster is going to keep remaining part of our strategy. It gives us another lever to pull and see what's going on in the field. Salomon Sports marketing team
Phase 2
Reaching a new customer segment with women athletes
Outdoor retail marketing leans heavily toward male athletes. Salomon wanted to encourage women to get outside, break from traditional stereotypes, and share their stories. The question was how to coordinate a global UGC campaign and then measure its impact.
Salomon engaged its ambassadors, customers, and social followers in a customized campaign, mobilized and rewarded them through Roster, and used automated social listening to pull reach and engagement metrics without manual reporting.
How the campaign ran
Four moving parts, one system
Unified brand community
Salomon engaged its ambassadors, customers, and social media followers to participate in a single customized campaign rather than a set of disconnected regional pushes.
Engaged and rewarded ambassadors
Ambassadors were mobilized and rewarded through Roster, and in turn engaged their own social audiences.
Automated insights
Roster's social listening pulled reach and engagement metrics automatically, so measurement did not depend on anyone compiling a report.
Maximized UGC
The campaign produced a large library of authentic content and feedback from the community, collected in one place.
Phase 2 results
2,800+ posts and 21.5M impressions
The new athlete community was a clear success. The content proved that women were shattering the traditional stereotypes the category had been marketing to for decades.
Key takeaways
What made the difference
- Spreadsheets were the bottleneck, not the athletes. Centralizing thousands of athletes into one platform is what made growth measurable.
- Global campaign, local delivery. Breaking worldwide campaigns into per-country messages respected each market instead of flattening it.
- Measurement changed the strategy. Once reach and engagement were visible, advocacy became a lever Salomon could pull deliberately rather than a happy accident.
- Zero ad spend is the headline. 350M+ people reached with no ads and no paid influencers.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Keep reading