Speedo USA, a division of The Warnaco Group Inc, which itself licences the Speedo brand from Speedo International, has unveiled the Speedo Pace Club, the brand’s new digital, consumer and e-commerce swim training product, now live at paceclub.speedousa.com.
The Speedo Pace Club marks Speedo’s largest digital initiative to date in the US, carrying the iconic swim brand from the pool deck to the digital space. Utilising premium video content, informative editorial, social activation and training modules for web and mobile platforms, Speedo Pace Club aims to empower swimmers of all levels.
The Speedo Pace Club was designed by SYRUP (part of the LBi Group), an award-wining international creative agency that creates momentum and cultural relevance for brands using new storytelling formats.
As the swim market continues to expand, the concept for Speedo Pace Club was born as the brand realized that fitness and competitive swimmers were looking for tools and resources to help them ‘dive in’ and swim better.
Through its five key components – Training, Swim Team, Splash Tags, Athlete Blogs, and Product Insight – Speedo Pace Club enhances the Speedo brand experience through relevant content that encourages users to train harder, maximize their workouts, track times, and build their own online swimming community, reinforcing Speedo as a key online destination for competitive and fitness swimmers.
Speedo Pace Club
Designed to be a training resource, the site will provide users with a series of training modules (across the beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate and advanced levels) that include 12 weeks of workouts, commentary and tips. A technique training module features videos created with Speedo’s Olympic Coaches, Teri McKeever and Dave Salo, using a Phantom Flex Camera shooting underwater at high speed.
As workouts are completed, users can share their progress through their logged activity within Swim Team and via Facebook and Twitter. To mark certain levels of achievement, digital ‘badges’ are awarded to Pace Club members, and fellow members can offer encouragement through ‘high fives’ on the site. Following a period of inactivity on Swim Team, phone messages from Team Speedo’s Olympic coaches will encourage users to dive back in to their workouts!
Discount codes, distance-oriented badges and other rewards incentivize on-going participation for Speedo Pace Club users.
Swim Team is a specialized social network created specifically for swimmers within Pace Club’s architecture. It provides a way to connect with other swimmers and their swimming friends on Facebook for the support, recognition and motivation they need to meet their goals.
Splash Tags is a swimming pool locator to help swimmers and families find pools, swim teams and swim programs in their neighbourhood. Users can also post comments to guide other users in their swimming pool choice.
Available now as a free download in the iTunes App Store, the Speedo Pace Club iPhone application puts the Swim Team, Training Modules and Splash Tags in the palm of the user’s hand. A virtual swim coach on the go, the Pace Club app provides the same workout tools, videos, Splash Tags and social networking available on the Pace Club site. User profiles and updates are synced between the app and the website so that a user’s activity is always up to date.
The Speedo Pace Club app is currently optimized for iPhone and iPad and is expected to be available for Android in late 2011.
Speedo Pace Club will also offer users and visitors unprecedented access to the biggest swim stars in the world through the Pro Athlete Blog section of the site featuring content generated by Team Speedo athletes themselves.
“We are extremely excited to unveil Speedo Pace Club,” said Jim Gerson, President of Speedo USA. “Through this overarching update of our digital strategy, we are creating a deeper brand experience, providing utility and value for swimmers, positioning Speedo in the digital space with confidence, strengthening our e-commerce and retail initiatives, and, ultimately, inspiring more people to get in the water.”
Speedo Pace Club will be supported with an integrated consumer and new media campaign designed to drive users to the site. The brand will promote Pace Club through Facebook, Twitter and You Tube, and through targeted outreach to its network of swim teams and swim clubs. The new Speedo 2012 Racing Catalog features Speedo’s first ever QR codes linked to Pace Club videos.
“Speedo is a leader in the performance space, so we wanted to create tools for novice and competitive swimmers to improve their technique and training,” said Syrup’s Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder, Jakob Daschek. “With Speedo’s community-powered experience and editorial content featuring stunning visuals, user-friendly applications and social utilities, the value consumers get from the brand is set to grow exponentially.”
“When we started this project, the first thought was to avoid a typical marketing approach,” added SYRUP’s Ben Abramowitz, Creative Director on Speedo. “Once we decided to build a digital product to add value to the Speedo brand and products, the approach changed completely. Our primary focus was the consumer and how we could make the Pace Club as useful to a swimmer as possible.”
As the Speedo brand looks ahead to 2012, Speedo Pace Club will evolve as a hub for new content connecting the new products that Team Speedo stars will wear in London as well as real-time updates from next summer’s events.
