How Smartwool and Altra Tapped into Run Club Culture to Launch a Cold Weather Run Collection

Smartwool is a brand made for people who not only want to get outside, but also those who want to lift up their friends and community around them. When Smartwool teamed up with Altra for a collab winter-running collection, they sought to answer the question, “how can we help runners stay active, connected, and moving even in the darkest, coldest months (when running activity can drop by as much as 30% to 50%)?”

To do this, Smartwool and Altra tapped Backbone to activate tactics across PR, paid media, creative, social media, and influencers. The end result was an integrated campaign anchored in social running trends that helped Smartwool and Altra reach new audiences and gain traction in the cold running space. The campaign came together via the following tentpoles: 

‘Warmed up’ with a glow-in-the-dark night run event in Denver, Colorado.

• Tapped into local run clubs to spread the word to their communities
• Hosted product demos to bring the collection to life 
• Energized the event with custom face painting, a DJ, light-up hula hoops, custom glowing bracelets, and more
• Fueled runners with free pizza and neon cotton candy
• Invited media and influencers to the event 
• Commissioned a permanent art installation by local artist Jamie Pawlus along the event run route (also a popular city trail), and made a donation to the City of Denver to help with urban trail improvements

‘Set the pace’ with video storytelling and a strategic paid distribution plan to connect with runners. 

• Worked with Justin Diamond at A As In Atticus to create hype videos, pre- and post-event
• Deployed a full-funnel paid media strategy across CTV, Display, YouTube, and Meta

Extended reach via a local and national influencer strategy

• Worked with a roster 18 influencers, both Denver local and national 
• Amplified content via Backbone’s Content to Convert approach

Saturated endemic run and fitness media via a multi-pronged PR approach. 

• Pitched local and national media across outdoor, core run, mainstream, and lifestyle/fitness outlets
• Seeded the collection to media across verticals

Partnered with Strava to deploy national and city-specific challenges, building off Smartwool’s momentum on the platform. 

• Created the Altra x Smartwool Strava Club Challenge that encouraged people to complete 237 minutes of activity, symbolizing the freezing point of water
• Placed branded content within the Strava platform
• Published a sponsored article, “Merino-on-Merino: Train in Comfort this Winter”

RESULTS

• Glow-in-the-Dark 5k Running Event
  • Six run clubs spanning several ages and demographics—Black Men Run Denver, Black Girls Run Denver, Cooldown Running, Latinos Run Denver, Colorado Columbines, and City Girls Walk Denver—helped drive more than 175 people to the event
  • Six influencers created 28 posts, generating over 300K organic impressions and an effectiveness rate of 7.44%
  • Five local media attended
• Video Storytelling and Paid Distribution
  • Scaled reach of video assets (SW produced, BB produced, and Influencer assets) via CTV, YouTube and Meta, resulting in 21.7M impressions to high consideration running audiences in focus geo-areas.
  • Brought an additional 3.7M impressions on the collaboration via Display player retargeting and OOH placements, seeking to have an omni-channel presence across running audiences. 
• Local and National Influencer Strategy
  • 12 influencers created 51 pieces of content, achieving over 376K organic impressions and 620 link clicks, with a strong engagement rate of 6%.
• Multi-Pronged PR Approach
  • Seeded product kits to 30 media
  • Converted 10 placements garnering over 553M earned media impressions
  • Outreach spurred interest in Smartwool’s cold weather active apparel and accessories 
• Strava Partnership
  • The Altra x Smartwool Strava Club Challenge surpassed 133K participants and reached a high level of activity with over 900K recorded sessions
  • The Strava x Smartwool/Altra sponsored article grew Smartwool’s dedicated following on the platform, with 1,281 new members joining the Smartwool club