ELLESPORT forms part of the global ELLE brand, known by many for its fashion magazine. Tell us how this venture into sportswear began?
ELLE has diversified into many different industries across the globe including stationery, jewellery, make-up and clothing. The ELLESPORT UK licence is held by the former founders of USA Pro and has been growing under their reign for the last 10 years within the UK.
All collections are designed in-house by a team based in the Midlands and are fitted to flatter the UK woman. The company helped pioneer the rise of the current AthLeisure trend and have prided themselves on blurring the boundaries between fashion and fitness.
How has the affiliate channel helped improve brand visibility to influencers and content sites?
ELLESPORT moved to Awin in October 2016 and we have quickly seen relationships with key influencers grow with the help of our dedicated account team at the network. The fitness industry is highly driven by social media and brand relationships, therefore content affiliates are a great way for us to grow our brand awareness and image of high quality fashion forward sports apparel.
Over the years, we have found that consumers trust influencers more than brands themselves and therefore we heavily invest our resources into our content affiliate relationships. As we continually grow, we like to test new market segments and find that using the affiliate network to do so often lessens the potential risk due to the CPA model.
What is the main focus of your 2017 affiliate strategy?
In 2017, we aim to grow our affiliate network with key traffic driving partners, however we will continue to work with smaller influencers and incentivise them by offering order assisted incentives in key months. That’s one of the key reasons I moved the programme to Awin, I believe that all touch points should be recognised and rewarded for driving the brand forward.
This year I am also keen to look for tech partners that can help put ELLESPORT ahead of its competitors in terms of creating a seamless and easy customer journey. The customer is and always will be at the heart of any decision that is made at ELLESPORT HQ, we want our customers to feel empowered to achieve their fitness goals.
You took part in our festive ‘Advertiser Advent’ competition at the end of 2016. How did you find this engaged users with the programme?
The festive ‘Advertiser Advent’ competition was brilliant for us to remind people that we’d joined the Awin platform. We saw a record number of affiliates wanting to join our programme and get involved with the brand.
What do you look for when looking to work with a new publisher?
When looking for new publishers; reach and audience brand fit is always key for me. An affiliate audience should always have a biased towards females with a high interest in either fashion or fitness. I also like publishers who are open to new ideas and that really want to collaborate and build a relationship.
Name something we may we not know about ELLE SPORT?
The ELLESPORT HQ is located in an Old Silk Mill in Leicestershire and even has an office dog called Carlos. Carlos was found abandoned in Spain whilst the Creative Director was on holiday, so not being one for leaving someone in distress she decided to have him brought back to the UK, where he lives today. Here’s Carlos on a recent photo shoot:
Join the ELLESPORT affiliate programme here.
