Track your speed and map your route with Nike, snow reports with Northface and find the perfect lense on your ipad with Oakley. http://www.exiconglobal.com/report-download/sportswear
2. UPDATE INTRODUCTION
Part of a series of updates on how brands across major
industry sectors are embracing mobile as part of their digital,
markeAng or product strategy.
We have reviewed over 1000 branded mobile applicaAons
and summarized the key findings and trends to give you a
snapshot of who is doing what and how.
This update focuses on the Sportswear Industry.
Other updates for brands will be available for the following
industries:
• AutomoAve (available now) • Banking & Finance
• Airline (available now) • FMCG
• Luxury Fashion (available now) • CosmeAcs
• Sportswear • Food & Beverage
• Luxury Goods • Alcoholic Beverages
• Retail • Hospitality
To automaAcally receive Exicon’s Branded App Updates,
subscribe at hWp://digital.exicon.mobi/reports
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3. OVERVIEW
Sportswear Brands Are Early
Adopters
Given the slightly younger than average
demographic usually associated with these
brands, it is not surprising to see that the sports
industry been quite proacAve in joining the first
wave of branded applicaAons over the last two
KEY OBSERVATIONS 04
years, led by the category leaders Nike and
adidas.
APP SPOTLIGHTS 08
Within the sportswear category, apps tend to
fall into three disAnct categories:
FUTURE TRENDS 13
CONCLUSION 16
Outside of these three main app categories, a
few apps tend to feature video as a key focus.
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4. KEY OBSERVATIONS
1
1000+ branded apps reviewed to date
% share by industry
Sportswear
Brands Make Up
High Street
Third Of Fashion CosmeAcs
Airlines Finance
Apps
Hospitality
17% of all the apps we reviewed in our
Sportswear
study were branded fashion apps, the
Alcohol Fashion
largest percentage to date.
Food & 17%
One third of the branded fashion apps we Beverage
reviewed were sportswear brands.
Luxury
Sportswear brands includes Nike, adidas, Luxury
Puma, Reebok, New Balance, plus Goods FMCG
outdoor brands such as Columbia, The
North Face, and Timberland.
Retail AutomoAve
Many more shoppers are using their phones to
research items and compare prices before
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making purchases both off and online.
5. KEY OBSERVATIONS
2 Category
Dominated by
Nike and adidas
In their quest for brand share, both Nike
and adidas have launched mulAple
mobile campaigns, eager to own a key
channel for communicaAng with young
adults.
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6. KEY OBSERVATIONS
3 Primarily Fitness
Support
ApplicaSons
The large sports brands have primarily
focused their efforts on creaAng “fitness
support” applicaAons, designed to help
consumers work out or demonstrate how
they can get more out of their exercise
rouAnes.
These applicaAons vary greatly in
sophisAcaAon, from Aps and tricks guides
(Timberland, Columbia) to full monitoring
and tracking apps (adidas, Nike).
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7. KEY OBSERVATIONS
4
Nike & Apple
Nike has partnered with
Apple, creaAng their apps
specifically to work with
iPods and iPhones and an
Apps + Hardware accelerometer aWached to
or embedded in a shoe.
Both Nike and adidas’ fitness support
apps require addiAonal hardware beyond
the mobile device. Despite this extra
barrier to purchase, both brands have
seen success in the market.
adidas & Samsung
Following adidas’ less than
successful partnership with
Samsung, the new and
improved miCoach system
was released on an open
plaiorm to a greatly
improved response from the
consumer.
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8. APP SPOTLIGHT
The North Face
Both The Snow Report and Trailhead apps
focus on a high level of uAlity for their
customers, uAlizing GPS, geotagged
photos, and GoogleMaps integraAon,
powered by EveryTrail.com
Trailhead tracks your route, distance,
speed and elevaAon in real‐Ame. When
done exploring, routes can be posted to
Facebook, TwiWer or EveryTrail.com.
"The advantage of having it on the iPhone is
just that it's mobile. A lot of our end users are
mobile and on the road.” Aaron Carpenter, VP of
marke1ng for The North Face.
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9. APP SPOTLIGHT
REI Snow and Ski
Report
REI went a more tradiAonal route and
bought placement on an app developed
by mobile app company Zumobi. Like The
North Face, the REI Snow and Ski Report
offers condiAons and weather forecasts at
1800 resorts worldwide.
Ranked as the No. 5 weather‐related app
in iTunes. iTunes Data
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10. APP SPOTLIGHT
Columbia 'What
Knot To Do In The
Greater Outdoors’
Simple yet highly informaAve, this free
app is a how to guide for dozens of useful
knots – clearly of value to Columbia’s
target consumer.
100,000 downloads in six months. Columbia
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11. APP SPOTLIGHT
Vans Live
This free iPhone & iPad app is rich with
live HD video, live feeds, photos, event
results and surfing news following the
28th Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
The first ever live mobile webcast applicaSon
for any acSon sports event.
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12. APP SPOTLIGHT
Oakley
Oakley’s iPad applicaAon allows potenAal
customers to simulate various lens types
in mulAple outdoor seongs. It’s also
available for the iPhone, but the 360
views just aren’t as cool as on the iPad.
Unfortunately there is not a link to an
online shop, but certainly a step in the
right direcAon.
Oakley makes full use of the wealth of
interacSve features of the iPad – Slt to fully
explore panoramic landscapes and various
lighSng angles.
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13. APP SPOTLIGHT
Billabong Surf
Trip
A uniquely 3D surfing game – think Tony
Hawk Pro Skater, but for surfing, on the
iPad. This app costs US$2.99, but there is
a free lite version to introduce people to
this original surf game.
“It’s the first game to have wave technology
that changes features not only at every surf
break but on every wave. It makes it a unique
surf game.” Brad Vandenberg, Billabong Graphic
Designer
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14. FUTURE TRENDS
1 Moving Beyond
The iPhone
There is a definite opportunity for
Sportswear brands to explore plaiorms
beyond Apple, parAcularly given a variety
of incenAves being offered by RIM and
Nokia for app development on their
handsets.
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15. FUTURE TRENDS
2
By 2015, more consumers will shop with mobile
devices than laptops or desktops. Morgan Stanley
Drive To
Commerce
The next stage for sportswear brands will
be driving purchases directly through
customer handsets. Mobile sites have
proved effecAve at driving traffic and
aWendance in‐store, brand awareness,
user engagement and customer loyalty.
The top fashion apps are either m‐
commerce enabled or use GPS to locate
the nearest store along with an exclusive
offer.
Columbia’s mobile storefront drives compeAAve
differenAaAon in the market and is one of the top 15
mobile commerce‐enabled desAnaAons of 2010.
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16. FUTURE TRENDS
3 Team & League
Management
Apps
Mobile is the perfect medium to extend
sports into people’s lives.
Apps can be a powerful tool to facilitate
all kinds of bookings at sporAng centers
or find teams to join, form your own,
even start your own league, for almost
any sport, any age group, anywhere.
The best brand communicaSons do more than
deliver a message; they deliver a service.
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17. CONCLUSION
The Next Best Thing To A Gym Buddy
Successful branded sportswear apps tend either to be useful
to the company’s core demographic (The North Face, REI),
be entertaining (Billabong) or enhance the company’s
product in some way (adidas micoach & Nike Plus).
While the Sportswear category has certainly taken a lead
role in innovaAve mobile development, there sAll exists an
exciAng opportunity for brands branching into the mobile
commerce and sports organizaAon assistance.
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18. WANT TO KNOW MORE?
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Other updates for brands will be
available soon for the following
Let us know which ciAes you’d be interested
industries.
in aWending and we’ll be in touch when
• AutomoAve (available now) • Luxury Goods we’re in your neck of the woods.
• Airline (available now) • FMCG
• Luxury Fashion (available now) • CosmeAcs Go to
• Sportswear (available now) • Food & Beverage hWp://digital.exicon.mobi/new/
• Banking & Finance • Alcoholic Beverages expediAon.php
• Retail • Hospitality
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