Three fifths of sports and fitness clothing brands have used social media influencers to help promote their products, it has been revealed, and as many as 49% of these noticed a boost in sales following this.
As many as 62% of business owners or marketing teams from sports and fitness wear brands have used social media influencers to promote their products. Of these, two thirds of them recompensed the influencers through free clothing or merchandise.
The study was conducted by the team at global affiliate network Awin, and 1,193 business owners or marketing teams from sports and fitness clothing brands were polled.
The respondents of the study were initially asked whether they had ever used a social media influencer to promote their brand, to which 62% said that they had, whilst 38% said that they had not.
Relevant respondents were then asked if they had noticed an improvement in sales following their use of an influencer, with 49% saying that they had, 16% saying that they had not, and the remaining 35% saying that they weren’t sure if it had made a difference. The average uplift in sales around the time of influencer posts was found to be 53%.
Next, participants were asked how they recompensed the influencers for promoting their brand. When told they could choose multiple options, the most common answers were ‘they were given free clothing or merchandise’ (65%), ‘through direct payment’ (51%) and ‘through discount codes’ (44%).
Participants were also asked if they were planning to increase their spend on influencer marketing, keep it the same or decrease it. Just over half (52%) said that they were looking to increase their spend, whilst 11% were looking to decrease it, and 33% said that they were content with their spending.
All respondents were asked which social media platform was the most important for their use of influencers, and the top result was Instagram (45%), followed by Facebook (36%) and YouTube (26%).
Commenting on the findings of the study, Claire Mullan, Head of Marketing at Awin (www.awin.com), said: “It’s no big surprise that so many sports and fitness brands are using social influencers to help promote their products. It’s encouraging that so many have seen a boost in sales, as this is playing a big part in sports and fitness marketing.”