Deep Dive: Speedo Stokes Brand Using Social Media Strategy

The social media challenge for many businesses is figuring out how to build on the loyalty of their customers without being too obvious or obnoxious. Speedo is one of many that has created a community around the product's end use. In their case, that is competitive swimming. The beauty of this approach is that it offers a useful tool without demanding a quid pro quo. The customer benefits from the features and the company accumulates brand recognition, positive reputation - and the potential for sales.

The concept is old: auto companies started driving clubs a hundred years ago, but the online features and broader online network update the concept while extending the brand. Crowd sourcing opportunities for further product and service development abound. Most companies are still finding their way as this medium evolves. A practical, externally focused strategy offers the ultimate inducement: it simply makes sense. JL

Matt Wilson reports in Ragan.com:

For many beachgoers, the name Speedo conjures images of underdressed guys strutting past their sand castles. But among competitive swimmers, the brand is the be-all and end-all for gear-suits, caps, goggles, watches, fitness equipment, you name it. With that in mind, Speedo teamed with communications firm Syrup to build its own online hub for swimmers ranging from professionals to those just starting out.

The Speedo Pace Club, which has a mobile component in addition to its main website, includes workout logs, check-ins at pools around the country, blogs by prominent swimmers, expert training tips and more. The Pace Club underwent a "soft launch" July 20, says Ben Abramowitz, creative director at Syrup. The official launch with media support was Monday. "For a soft launch, numbers have far exceeded our expectations," he says.

Kicking off

Around the start of the year, Speedo approached Syrup looking for a long-term, online branding strategy. Pace Club was one of a handful of ideas the agency brought back to the company, which latched onto it right away.

"Speedo was very supportive and interested in the overall idea of Pace Club," Abramowitz says. "Katie Tyrell, director of marketing at Speedo USA, and Jim Gerson, president of Speedo USA, both saw the value early on and were strong advocates within their organization."

From the strategy phase to launch, the development of Pace Club took about seven months, he says. Syrup and Speedo employees keep the site going, and the size of the team changes depending on need.

Unique features

Abramowitz argues the site isn't strictly a social media tool. He calls it a "swim-training digital product," of which social media is one feature.

"Pace Club definitely has a social component in the form of 'Swim Team,' which is how users connect with each other, trade info and give support," he says.

It's also important for Pace Club to serve as a news site for swimmers, Abramowitz says.

"It seemed like a natural pathway to create a blog giving consumers direct access to Speedo's Olympic athletes as a way to garner consumer interest," he says.

Right now, most of the posts coming from Michael Phelps and other swimmers are reports on what they're doing at the world championships in Shanghai. When there isn't a big event like that happening, the plan is for those prominent swimmers to post tips to help users with their training and diet, Abramowitz says.

A video section of the site offers interviews with prominent swimmers, as well as demonstrations of various drills and strokes.

Facebook may have done a lot to put social media on the map, but no one from the site calls you for a pep talk if you're slacking off. Pace Club features what Abramowitz calls "coach calls."

"If a swimmer misses more than two weeks of training, and they signed up for SMS updates, they will receive a phone call from either Dave Salo or Terri McKeever, laying on the guilt and nudging them back into the pool," he says. "No one wants to disappoint Coach Salo."

Another fun social media aspect of the site is the badge system. Swimmers obtain badges for completing swims that correspond to specific landmarks.

"So, for example, we'll let you know when you have swum the height of Mount Everest, and you can share the badge with your friends," Abramowitz says.

Another Foursquare-style element is that swimmers have the ability to check in at pools around the country, be they at schools, YMCA facilities, parks or aquatic centers. They can also comment on each pool.

The second leg

A ton of updates to how swimmers interact with one another is coming soon, Abramowitz says, though he didn't say exactly what. "We are launching a developer section within the 'News' blog on the site, to give users updates around functionality and what's coming next," he says.

So far, the online chatter and mobile app ratings for Pace Club have "been positive and really constructive," Abramowitz says. For example, one Twitter commenter said the site could be "the Nike+ for swimming." Nike's site focuses on runners.

At Apple's iTunes store, the app is averaging three stars out of five. One reviewer, BartonFinkX, says the app could use "a few improvements here and there," but has come in handy already. "It has always been the small, usually technical details that have troubled me when swimming, with no one really to ask or get advice from," the reviewer wrote.