Decathlon enters the German-speaking Swiss market with the Franz&René campaign
Following an agency pitch, the French sports brand Decathlon selected the Bern-based agency Franz&René to handle its digital communications and the opening of its 14 stores in German-speaking Switzerland.
The special feature of the campaign is that it starts in time with the store openings by always focusing on the respective catchment area. Geographic targeting via mainly digital media avoids wastage, including targeted digital brand content, a programmatic campaign, geolocation tools and posters in the catchment area.
"Sport for everyone. Everything for sport." Hardly known or unknown in German-speaking Switzerland, Decathlon is not only aimed at top athletes and their successes, but also supports all those who want to try out a sport. And what better way to try out a sport than with innovative, affordable products for more than 140 sports?
In addition to OOH and public transport measures, the campaign made use of programmatic advertising. The Gamned agency made it possible to reach the right people in the right place at the right time. In the sequence of store openings, only the newly opened store in the catchment area is shown. This is intended to both position the brand more strongly and encourage people to visit the stores. The campaign allows store managers to collect market-specific data and refine the messages at national level thanks to data learning.
IAB banners and native ads direct traffic to the landing page of the website, where users are redirected to the nearest point of sale. There are also innovative formats such as the GPStore, a banner specific to mobile devices that determines your location in real time and displays the nearest store. The Facebook Instant Storytelling tool completes the smartphone-oriented campaign and integrates all campaign messages in one post.
The opening of the store in Baar was the second sales launch and recorded a high number of visitors. The opening in Suhr already achieved good results. The KPIs of the video (despite a length of almost one minute) are a success across the board. The following twelve openings will undoubtedly follow the same trend.
Responsible at Decathlon (Switzerland): Romain Robert-Nicoud (Marketing Manager Switzerland), Quentin Perceval (Digital Specialist). Responsible at Franz&René: Valérie Pecalvel (Strategic Direction), Luciano Gerber (Client Service Direction), Vincent Eichenberger (Digital Senior Account Management), Yoann Cosson (Creative Direction), Gianluca Terzini (Art Direction), Sven Jungo (Graphic Design). Responsible at Dynamic Frame: Paulus Bruegmann (Director), Luzius Fischer (Managing Executive Producer). Responsible at Gamned: Diane de Vilmorin (Sales Director), Damien Lê (Sales Manager), Cloé Tello (Key Account Manager). Responsible at Mediaschneider: Claudia Diener (Head of accounting), Raushan Kalmagambetova (Key account).
