These days it seems like there’s a holiday for just about everything, right?
Well, it’s time to lace up your sneakers and hit the ground running for – you guessed it – Global Running Day!
What is Global Running Day?
On the first Wednesday of June in 2009, runners across the US geared up for the first-ever National Running Day. The day was established to bring runners together and promote healthy habits. By 2016, worldwide interest in the holiday grew, and it evolved into Global Running Day with over 2.5 million participants from 177 countries.
This year, runners from all over the world will get moving on June 1 to celebrate, and kids can participate in The Million Kid Run, another tradition that’s been part of the festivities for the last few years.
The pandemic put a damper on Global Running Day events last year, although some cities and individual groups held virtual running sessions. That means this year’s celebrations will be bigger and better as runners hit the streets, parks, tracks, trails, and everywhere else.
The pandemic fundamentally changed many aspects of our lives, and health and fitness are among the most impacted industries. Statista data shows that in 2020, Americans shelled out $5.6 billion on at-home consumer fitness equipment, while fitness center wholesale sales lost more than $260 million between 2019 and 2020.
By 2021, some 80% of households owned at least one piece of fitness equipment. At-home fitness purchases vary, but top products include treadmills, exercises bikes, yoga mats, free weights, rowing machines, and even hula hoops.
Our publisher network also saw a spike in interest, with 48.1 billion pageviews counted across the Health and Fitness category in 2021.
Should Your Brand Join the Festivities?
If your brand is in the health, wellness, sports, fitness, or other related verticals, then yes, absolutely! Social holidays are an excellent opportunity to get in on a fun event, connect with consumers, and show off a light-hearted side of your brand’s personality.
Brands in other industries can also get in on the action with a bit of creativity. Pet brands could focus on accessories that make it easier to take man’s best friend out for a run, while beauty brands could promote sweat-proof products or those to use after consumers sweat it out. There are many paths to travel down – just pick one that aligns with your products or values. Authenticity is key.
So, advertisers and publishers – if you want to make strides with consumers during Global Running Day, pay attention to this post. We’ll cover everything you need to know so you can sprint across the finish line with more clicks and conversions.
Readership Trends Energizing Publishers
Let’s run down some of the trends we’ve seen emerge when looking at our US publisher network. As of April 15, 2022, readers showed interest in three main keywords:
Running: 3,192,300 pageviews in the last 90 days
Treadmill: 87,490 pageviews in the last 90 days
Incorporate those keywords into your marketing campaigns and articles to fire up consumers and capture their attention.
Publishers Take Trends and Run with Them
While we don’t recommend copying what other publishers and advertisers do, it never hurts to check out the competition and use it as inspiration.
POPSUGAR’s article covers the great debate among runners: treadmills or the open road.
Self is ready to help parents make the most of their jog.
SHAPE highlights all the obvious and not so obvious benefits of running.
Targeting Best Practices to Get Campaigns in Top Form
There’s no need to exhaust yourself with an uphill climb because we’re taking the guesswork out of campaign targeting.
Win over consumers and beat the competition by following these best practices:
- Automate with SmartBid: Powered by historical data and deep learning algorithms, Smartbid is a semi-automatic bidding strategy that increases or decreases impression bids based on how likely they are to convert.
- Consider High Impact Placements: If you want your campaigns to attract the most attention, they need to appear in high traffic areas, which is exactly what you get with High Impact Placements. Your campaigns are guaranteed to be surrounded by quality content and displayed on homepages, section fronts, mid-article, mobile-integrated news feeds, Taboola Feeds, and Taboola Stories.
- Use Motion Ads: Instead of static images, Motion Ads use short looped videos and GIFS to make your ads stand out from others. Motion Ads are great for consideration and conversion goals, with advertisers seeing higher CTRs and CVRs, and lower CPAs. Always A/B test your creative elements to find that magic mix.
Now let’s work out the types of content you should use for campaigns and which platforms you should target to reach the most active consumers.
As of April 10, 2022, our US-based fitness advertisers are achieving higher CTRs and lower spend with the following optimizations:
Performance by Content-Type: Choose Video over Photo and Text
Performance by Platform – Purchases: Boost purchases with Tablet campaigns over Desktop and Mobile
Performance by Platform – Leads: Earn more leads with Tablet campaigns over Desktop and Mobile
Creative Best Practices for Healthy Campaigns
Sometimes you can run yourself ragged trying to guess which image, piece of video footage, and headline will drive users to action.
Instead, turn to Taboola Trends, which will ‘relay’ all the insights you need to select the best-performing campaign elements.
Here’s a look at the creative trends that are boosting campaign metrics for US advertisers in the Health and Fitness vertical as of April 20, 2022:
Images: See your CTRs increase by using videos with food (+29%), women (+21%), and indoors (+16%).
Videos – Completion: Video completion rates should increase if you use illustrations (+130%), winter scenes (+100), men (+78%), and footage with text (+29%).
Videos – Viewability: If you want to increase video campaign viewability rates, include scenes showing rock climbing (+133%), driving (+34%), or marriage (+7%).
After testing a few headlines that incorporate readership trends, the Title Analyzer predicts ‘Sweat-Wicking Jogging Outfits that Look Great’ will produce a higher CTR than the others.
Putting together all the trends we’ve covered, here’s what some sample campaigns might look like:
Case Studies: Brands that Sped Towards Success
VAHA increases Smart Fitness Mirror Sales with Taboola
Adidas Best-Seller Emerges After Using Taboola Video
Adidas was looking for new ways to increase awareness for BOOST footwear technology separate from the ubiquitous Adidas name. The brand worked with Taboola Studio to create unique video content with overlaid CTAs to drive clicks and conversions.
After launching the campaigns using Taboola Video, Adidas saw a 50% increase in CTR and a 25% higher CTR compared to other video platforms.
Time For You to Get Moving
You’ve got all the necessary equipment to jumpstart your campaigns and content strategy. Remember that engaging consumers is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to build your funnel and reach customers throughout their journey as they move from brand awareness to consideration to purchase.
Launching campaigns and content for social holidays like Global Running Day is a fantastic way to add extra touchpoints and create additional sales opportunities for your brand.
Ready, set, go!