Marathon Sports Social Media Campaign
This social media campaign uses a strategy that aligns with the brand’s overall objectives to enhance brand visibility, engage the target audience, and drive the desired action.
Description
Goals
Marathon Sports, founded in 1975, has built a strong presence across New England with 22 retail locations offering athletic gear to runners, walkers, and fitness enthusiasts. While the brand has successfully expanded its physical footprint, its social media presence has not kept pace. Current efforts lack the consistency and strategy necessary to reflect the strength of its in-store brand experience. To address this gap, a comprehensive social media campaign was created to position Marathon Sports as a more visible and engaging presence in the digital space.
Strengthen brand visibility and recognition across key social media platforms.
Engage with the target audience through consistent, authentic, and community-focused content.
Develop a content strategy that reflects the brand’s values and appeals to both new and existing customers.
Drive conversions by supporting both online sales and in-store growth.
Establish performance tracking methods to measure engagement, reach, and campaign success.
Process
Social Media Audit
Marathon Sports has built a solid foundation across platforms like Instagram and Facebook, showing strong follower counts, consistent posting, and effective use of features like stories, reels, and hashtags. However, there are key opportunities for improvement in content variety, audience engagement, and platform consistency, particularly by promoting products more actively, re-engaging with X, and incorporating more strategic calls to action and hashtag usage.
What the Brand Does Well
Marathon Sports has an existing social media presence across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and X. They have thousands of followers on all these platforms and have established a fan base for their brand. The largest of these accounts is Instagram with 18.8k. They appear to be most active on Instagram. They take advantage of all the features that Instagram has to offer, including posting stories and reels. Their Instagram and Facebook have the most consistent posting cadence, the posts have a characterized theme, and they add detail in each of their captions. On Instagram, they recognize the importance of using hashtags.
Opportunities for Improvement
Although they have a social media presence on these platforms, they still have so much room for growth and improvement. It is crucial that they engage with their followers by responding to comments and commenting on posts they are tagged in. With regards to content ideas, they need to make more posts about the products they are selling on their website. It wasn't often enough to come across posts that informed their audience of their brand's products. Most of the content is photos that recap running events and races. Instead, they should be posting before these events take place. This will inform people of these upcoming events and races that people can watch or participate in.
Additionally, they have not posted on X since September 2023. They need to get this account running again because it will increase their potential to grow across social media. Overall, they lack content creation, consistency, and a clear call-to-action and despite using hashtags on Instagram, they do not use enough of them. By making better content, increasing the number of posts per day, interacting with followers, and using more hashtags, they can increase their engagement and following on each platform.
Campaign Strategy
This campaign strategy aims to establish a strong and relatable presence for Marathon Sports by sharing content that inspires, educates, and resonates with fitness-minded individuals. Centered around the theme “Run the Extra Mile: Embrace the Journey with Marathon Sports,” the campaign encourages runners of all experience levels to pursue their personal goals with the help of the brand’s expert support and quality gear.
Through engaging storytelling, product highlights, and interactive content, the campaign will drive interest, build stronger connections with followers, and increase overall engagement. By aligning its messaging with the values and ambitions of its audience, Marathon Sports can solidify its role as a trusted and motivating force within the running and fitness community.
Objectives
The campaign objectives for Marathon Sports' social media campaign are to boost brand awareness through engaging and educational content that is targeted towards runners and people interested in fitness. The campaign aims to drive online sales of running gear and apparel by showcasing products. Additionally, it seeks to grow a strong sense of community by engaging with its followers. Overall, the objective is to enhance brand visibility, grow product sales, engage the target audience, and drive desired actions.
Audiences
Marathon Sports' primary target audience consists of dedicated runners and fitness enthusiasts who are looking for high-quality gear to improve their performance and support their active lifestyles.
Additionally, the brand caters to beginner runners who are seeking reliable, entry-level products and expert guidance to kickstart their fitness journey. Overall, the demographic group for Marathon Sports consists of health-conscious individuals aged 18-45, including both seasoned runners and beginners, who are engaged in various running and fitness activities. These individuals are typically health-conscious, motivated by personal milestones, and active in various running events and fitness activities.
Content
Sample Posts
Reflection & Next Steps
Through this project, I gained valuable experience in developing a social media campaign that balances brand identity with audience needs. I learned the importance of creating a consistent strategy that not only builds visibility but also fosters community engagement and drives measurable results. This process reinforced my skills in platform selection, content planning, and performance tracking, while also highlighting how a clear digital presence can directly support retail growth.
Moving forward, the next steps would involve testing the campaign in a live environment and monitoring key performance indicators such as engagement, reach, and conversions. Regular content audits and analytics reviews would ensure the strategy stays relevant and effective. Expanding the campaign to include partnerships with local events, athlete ambassadors, or user-generated content could further strengthen Marathon Sports’ digital community and deepen customer loyalty.