Scaling Purpose in a Digital-First World
Athleta, part of Gap Inc., built its business on the Power of She, a promise to help women and girls reach their full potential. As shopping moved online during the pandemic, the brand wanted to lean further into digital to spread that mission and grow faster.
With Alli, PMG mapped Athleta's audiences across cultural moments, athletic communities, and everyday movers, then connected the brand to moments like the inauguration, the Olympics, and a Bustle and Strava fitness challenge. The same planning work paved the way for Athleta's entry into Canada.
Athleta's net sales rose 56% year over year, e-commerce grew 113%, and Gap projected the brand's revenue would double by 2023.
Athleta has used its 'Power of She' platform to elevate the company from one that Gap Inc. acquired for $150 million in 2008 to one that is on track to achieve $2 billion in sales by 2023 and leading the entire company into the future. With the pandemic accelerating consumers' shopping behavior online, Athleta, already a digitally savvy brand, sought to lean even further into digital to amplify its purpose and mission to empower women and girls to meet their full potential, and accelerate its business growth objectives.
Turning Purpose Into Performance
PMG is a critical partner to Athleta's digitally-led growth strategy, tapping into the power of Alli, PMG's operating system, to help the brand stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace through campaigns that celebrate all women, female empowerment, inclusion, and social responsibility. Alli Audience Planner built personas of Athleta's diverse audiences across cultural moments, athletic communities, and everyday movers, so the brand could engage each of them at the right time with the right message. Over the course of our three-year relationship with Athleta, PMG has focused on connecting the brand to diverse audiences, and engaging them at every stage of the customer lifecycle.
Bringing the Mission to Life
Inspiring Women During Historic Inauguration During the last presidential election cycle, we helped Athleta connect with pivotal moments in American history (i.e., the election and inauguration of the nation's first female vice president) to reinforce Athleta's message of empowerment with integrated campaigns that featured connected TV, digital media, and high-impact spreads in The New York Times and Washington Post that ran in tandem with historic election and inauguration coverage.
Standing On the Olympic Podium In 2021, PMG also used digital to ensure Athleta's groundbreaking sponsorships of two of the world's most decorated athletes, runner Allyson Felix and gymnast Simone Biles, drive not only sales of its performance apparel in the run-up, and during and after the Olympics, but more importantly, reinforce its position of celebrating and supporting athletes through their triumphs, their struggles, and at every stage of their lives.
Supporting Everyday Athletes Our campaigns over the past year also highlighted everyday women. 'What Moves You,' developed in partnership with Bustle and Strava replete with a landing page and Instagram story support, was a month-long custom challenge that sought to engage and motivate women from across the country to celebrate their strength, get moving, and connect with their communities during the pandemic, which elevated the importance of health and wellness in their lives, all with Athleta top-of-mind. The exclusive program encouraged participants to track 500 minutes of movement, regardless of how they did it, driving participants to complete more than 3 million activities.
Expanding the Brand Globally In 2021, PMG's strategic planning and insights team also paved the way for Athleta's North American expansion into the Canadian market. Our insights covered economic differentiators between the U.S. and Canada, identified opportunities for emphasizing messaging around fit based on population differences, and laid the foundation for a robust digital media plan based on Canadian consumers' media, digital, and shopping behaviors.
Each campaign ran inside Alli, which pulled connected TV, digital, social, print partnerships, and challenge activations into one view. Planners could see how a cultural moment was landing while it was still happening. When they had a question, they asked Ask Alli, and shifted investment toward the moments and messages lifting both sentiment and sales.
Purpose That Performs
56% Increase in net sales 113% Growth in e-commerce 2X Projected revenue growth
Our spring and summer campaigns drove millions of visitors to Athleta's website, maximizing the number of shoppers during key selling seasons. We also engaged Athleta's top audiences through video placements that resulted in over 125 million video views. The Bustle/Strava challenge pulled in almost 114k participants who tracked 3.5 million hours across nearly 32 million cumulative miles. And our Strategic Planning & Insights team helped bridge data, media, and creativity, to enable Athleta's entry into the Canada market, with the brand standing out in a marketplace that is home to Athleta's largest competitor, known for setting the athleisure standard. The digital campaigns combined to bring higher visibility for Athleta, and led to business results that hit the brand's balance sheet.
Athleta has grown into one of the brightest performers among the Gap Inc. companies in 2021. According to Gap's quarterly earnings report, Athleta's net sales were up 56% year over year, driven by "outsized digital growth," which was up 113%. The brand also achieved "record regular-priced sales through gains in relevant product categories and purpose-led marketing." Along with Old Navy, Athleta accounted for 66% of total quarterly revenue for Gap Inc., building on the previous 29% growth and surpassing more than $1 billion in revenue the previous quarter. Alli Brand Equity tied brand and business signals together in real time throughout the campaign period, giving the team continuous visibility into how purpose-led marketing was translating into commercial results. Based on the brand's strength across all channels, Gap expects revenue to double by 2023.
"Our teams are maniacally focused on growing our purpose-led billion-dollar lifestyle brands, and our customers are responding. The marketing investments we've made over the last several quarters to fuel demand, coupled with the macro tailwinds, are supercharging our business."
Sonia Syngal, CEO, Gap Inc., during quarterly earnings call
Our teams are maniacally focused on growing our purpose-led billion-dollar lifestyle brands, and our customers are responding. The marketing investments we've made over the last several quarters to fuel demand, coupled with the macro tailwinds, are supercharging our business.
