Vanquish Fitness

The Objective

Engaging audiences with content that resonates

Athleisure Wear brand Vanquish Fitness was started by friends Ollie and Ruben in 2015 fresh out of university. They shared a passion for style and fitness and wanted to bring the two together. As a result, they created their own active streetwear brand, offering streetwear-inspired fitness clothing perfect for both inside and outside the gym.

"Better than yesterday" is their mantra. It’s a theme that threads through everything they do; it’s woven into the products they make, the team they have, and the way they present themselves to the world.

They’re on a mission to inspire and champion people’s inner athletes in the pursuit of self-defined greatness. They do this by providing the platform and resources that people need as they strive towards their goals.

They’ve had an organic TikTok presence since they first started using and advertising on the platform in April 2020. Their entire approach to the content they post is geared around utilising inspiring and relatable content creators that have a knack for finding trends. This makes their content personable, relatable, and fun.

The content resonates and shows off Vanquish Fitness and their products in a relevant and relatable fashion. The content creators they work with know what makes their TikTok audience tick, and make content directly made for Tiktok - this makes their content very native. In addition, all of their content looks to show off the products in a normal everyday fashion. This lets the audience really visualise the products and see the benefits.

In 2021 they started working with the TikTok Account Management team and liaising with various departments. While successful, the team wanted to explore utilising TikTok more.

In May 2022, they worked with their TikTok Account Manager alongside their agency partner MK Digital and its owner Michael Tawiah, and together they hatched a media plan to send the Vanquish Fitness brand soaring.

The Solution

Boosting conversions with Value Based Optimisation

The goal was to increase conversions, sales, and complete payments. Over the course of the campaign, they were looking to get a lower cost per acquisition (CPA). At the same time, they wanted to boost brand notoriety and increase the level of engagement coming from their organic account to attract more followers.

The campaign-specific aim was to drive complete payments using a combination of retargeting and both custom and lookalike prospecting audiences. They'd also use email matching lookalikes, community interaction, and started to test Value Based Optimisation (VBO) campaigns in June 2022.

VBO optimises targeting by utilising data to reach users not just likely to buy, but most likely to be high-value customer. This means Tiktok shows ads to users with a higher chance of spending more, increasing the Return On Ad Spend generating from its ads.

To broadcast their campaign message the main focus was Spark Ads so they could leverage organic content and expand reach. They also used a combination of Collection Ads, Interactive Ads-Ons (featuring stickers with an offer) and standard Video Ads.

When they first started advertising on TikTok they concentrated on a UK-based audience with an extra US focus. Under the new media plan, they dropped the US focus due to the high cost and its lack of profitability, and decided to focus exclusively on scaling the UK market first.

The Results

Collaborating and optimising content pays dividends

The campaign was a massive success for Vanquish Fitness. Thanks to the media plan and the campaign structure they enjoyed a really successful Black Friday period by starting off with an early offer and then maintaining the momentum throughout the period. Their approach needed only a few extra budget adjustments for Black Friday activity. As a result of the media plan, they achieved a 50% lower CPA and a 2 x increase in Return on Ad Spend.

There's a bigger impact that the numbers don’t tell - the importance of the relationship between Vanquish Fitness, MK Digital and TikTok. The dedicated TikTok Account Manager was instrumental in helping Vanquish Fitness get the best out of their account.

Key to this was communicating on a daily basis. Twice a week, any suggested optimisations were made. This constant testing and optimisation paid dividends, resulting in a strong, positive business relationship that benefitted all. The close collaboration helped Vanquish trust TikTok in both the short and long-term.

The campaign also shows that the name of the game right now is VBO because of the results it brings. Another key insight is the importance of ensuring that ad sets have adequate spend in place; this ensures that learnings can be acted on and the campaign can optimise effectively while it's live.

Finally, the campaign also highlights how it pays to always be on the lookout for new TikTok features - these can be instrumental in improving campaign performance.