The Challenge

In August, The Feed challenged athletes to complete 250 minutes of exercise to unlock an annual Feed sponsorship starting with a $60 annual Feed Credit to spend on nutrition. Armed with a custom water bottle machine, the Feed rewarded challenge finishers with a free limited water bottle (customized with the finisher’s name) when they spent $65 dollars or more on the site. 

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Why Strava

The Feed was excited about the opportunity Strava provided to reach a global network of active lifestyle consumers and endurance athletes, both of whom form the backbone of the Strava community and themselves. They wanted to acquire new customers and reach new audiences who did not fall into their traditional customer base of endurance athletes - but rather anyone who leads an active lifestyle and is interested in satisfying their nutritional needs. They wanted to break down perceptions that The Feed is solely for elite endurance athletes, so they set a broad and attainable challenge goal of 250 minutes of exercise over two weeks.

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The Feed seized on the fact that Strava athletes are highly attentive to their needs in maintaining an active lifestyle. As Strava is centered around community inspiration, activity tracking, and self-improvement, The Feed felt that their value proposition of simplifying nutrition shopping would resonate deeply with Strava athletes. Additionally, they valued that authenticity is at the core of the Strava experience, given that Strava does not provide disruptive advertising experiences.

Impact

The challenge saw 92,895 total participants and 83,750 total completions. Additionally The Feed grew their Strava club by 4,563 members. The Feed is focused primarily on new customer acquisition and due to the success accompanying their three Sponsored Challengers in 2022, they view Strava as the cornerstone of their overall marketing strategy. Their arsenal includes podcast ads, Facebook, as well as sponsorship & affiliate programs. However, they have found the most success with Strava. With their standout creativity, The Feed’s Strava challenges have been received with great acclaim from Strava users and Feed customers alike.

Learnings and Next Steps

The Feed is focused primarily on new customer acquisition, and due to the success accompanying their three Sponsored Challenges in 2022, they view Strava as the cornerstone of their overall marketing strategy. They plan on running a Strava challenge every month in 2023 and look forward to growing the partnership. As they continue to run more sponsored challenges, they hope to refine their targeting, key audiences, and overall strategy through A/B testing to unlock continued success. Over the course of 2022, they have grown their club by 14,246 members (+345%) and are keen to continually engage it to unlock further growth. Additionally, with a star-studded roster of endurance athletes on their High Performance Team with a sizable Strava profile, there is great potential to leverage these ambassadors to reach new audiences.