Intersport Elverys
Driving Growth and tapping into new demographics with TikTok
The Objective
Attracting new users with strategic campaigns
Established in 1847, Elverys is Ireland’s oldest and most popular sports store. They cater for both top sports stars and Ireland’s casual sporting community alike.
They're known for stocking a wide range of popular sports goods ranging from soccer items to GAA, dart flights, to cricket bats. They complement this with their range of own-brand accessories and equipment. They’re the perfect place for sports inspiration.
Their support for organisations and associations that promote sport at a grass root level is also key to who they are.
With their customers aged 25 plus already at a mature stage, they needed to adapt and flex their digital strategy. They needed to find and engage new customers with fewer financial responsibilities and grow revenue year on year. They turned to their trusted agency partner, Wolfgang Digital.
The Solution
Launching on TikTok to increase reach and awareness
Analysing Intersport Elverys’ data, Wolfgang Digital reasoned they could find new customers on TikTok due to the number of unduplicated users on the platform. Without TikTok, Elverys wouldn’t reach these users as they weren’t active on other channels. Therefore, advertising on this new platform presented an opportunity to raise awareness among new audiences, nurture them, convert them and unlock new revenue.
Armed with this knowledge in July 2022, they launched @intersportelverys with a plan to run several different campaigns up until November. The aim was threefold; increase reach, traffic and boost conversion rates.
Three KPIs would measure success;
Grow Last click Revenue among the target 18-24 demographic by 20% YoY.
Increase this demographic’s revenue contribution to 10%.
Increase the brand’s following on TikTok by 100% up to 11K.
The campaigns deployed numerous TikTok tools including In-Feed Ads, Interactive Add-Ons such as the Countdown Stickers, Spark Ads, and Hashtag Targeting. To drive awareness, the team deployed reach campaigns featuring Spark Ads and their ability to leverage organic content to expand reach. To boost website visits, the team used traffic campaigns, and conversion campaigns to increase purchases.
For the creative content, all video was authentic and relatable. Wolfgang had noticed that using real people in their ads for Intersport Elverys resulted in a 32% higher CTR and 26% lower CPC. So, the decision was taken to ditch the sleek and polished videos and ensure that all ads featured people, shot on-phone and edited in-app. No models! No actors! No high-quality cameras!
This ensured that the content felt real and fit the platform. As part of this, they pushed workplace content featuring regular employees alongside Intersport Elverys’ Brand Ambassadors.
Wolfgang also launched a series of unboxing-style ads for Intersport Elverys celebrating the release of the new Irish Rugby jersey. These featured Intersport Elverys’ Brand Ambassador, Connacht and Ireland Rugby star Bundee Aki.
They also launched a series of Flash Sale campaigns using Countdown Stickers and Gift Code Stickers to drive urgency. These campaigns also proved successful in driving new users to the website who we could nurture into a new loyal customer.
To reach the right people, the team used a mixture of Custom Audiences, Lookalikes, Auto Targeting and Hashtag Targeting. Hashtag Targeting, in particular, made targeting more efficient and niche. These included; #IrishRugby (8M Views), #RugbyJersey (62.7K Views) and #BundeeAki (203.2K Views).
The Results
Hashtag Targeting sends conversions soaring
Intersport Elverys' TikTok campaigns have had huge success when measured against their three KPIs.
TikTok’s low CPMs allowed the team to drive 26% more impressions in the 18-24 demographic with a 9% lower spend than other social channels. The result? A 30% YoY revenue increase, 10% more than their KPI. This propelled the 18-24 cohort from being a low priority to delivering the largest YoY online revenue growth of all demographics.
Overall revenue contribution from the 18-24 demographic also increased from 8% to 10%. Meaning this demographic maintained the highest eCommerce conversion rate in the second half of 2022. This demonstrates the value of showing users relevant, engaging and native TikTok content.
The target of growing the Intersport Elverys Brand on TikTok by increasing followers by 100% was surpassed. Intersport Elverys are a verified TikTok presence with 18.5K followers and have received 210.4K likes . Since its launch, followers of @intersportelverys have grown by 178%. This has established a bigger pool of users for the brand to nurture and retarget in 2023.
The campaigns had an even bigger impact though. There was a direct correlation between the number of TikTok Impressions that were served and the number of Brand Search Impressions and Brand Search Revenue through pay per click (PPC) . Eloquent proof of the power of TikTok in driving awareness among new audiences who then convert through PPC and other channels. People who saw ads on TikTok but who didn’t convert immediately later went to Google and actively searched for the brand name and made a purchase.
The campaigns showed the importance of being present on TikTok and its effectiveness in reaching new users and integrating with other channels.
As a result, Intersport Elverys and Wolfgang Digital now work with an always-on strategy on TikTok and are focusing on creating content that’s native to the platform. Their intention is to base this on hashtag trends and use the content both organically and in their ads. Highly effective in the campaigns, they’re also continuing to use Gift Code stickers in their Flash Sales campaigns.
Time after time, Wolfgang Digital has provided valuable insight and expertise to Intersport Elverys, which has, directly and indirectly, led to substantial business growth. As one of our key partners for many years, they continue to unearth new channels, audiences and opportunities. From managing campaigns to bringing new possibilities to the fore, Wolfgang’s strategy still drives real growth whilst maintaining strong ROAS levels. Their consistency, open communication and responsiveness make them a joy to work with. Thanks, folks for all your efforts!”
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