Despite the dwindling TV audience numbers, the medium still holds the lion’s share of the advertising business. But taking a bold step away from TV completely is Adidas.
In a conversation with CNBC, Adidas’ chief executive Kasper Rorsted said the sports brand will now completely focus on marketing on digital platforms. He added that with this change, Adidas aims to quadruple its e-commerce revenues by 2020. It also plans to increase revenues from US$1 billion to US$4.25 billion.
During the interview, Rorsted added that the shift in focus to digital was also due to the younger demographic it looks to communicate with. However, this demographic is more in touch with the brand through mobile.
Meanwhile, in its 2016 annual report, Adidas said that by the end of 2017, it targets to grow the number of users in the digital ecosystem to over 250 million. Rorsted stated in the report that digital touches the “company at every point along the value stream – how we design, develop, manufacture and sell our products.”
“Already today, Adidas.com and Reebok.com are our largest and fastest-growing shops and we will further accelerate our investments in this area to create competitive advantages through digital. Growing our digital capabilities will ultimately also help us do a better job on margin enhancement, ” he added.
