Creating assets for your Sponsored Challenge: Part 1

Sponsored Challenges are great for building brand awareness, driving sales and growing your community on Strava and beyond.

As Challenges are unlike any other type of activation, we've put a guide together to help brands and their marketing teams create the best possible Challenge assets – from visuals and creative to copy, reward pages and more.

And of course, better Challenge assets should mean higher performance and an even greater return on your investment.

Here is a breakdown of the fundamental components to think about when putting together a Challenge:

• Main Structure – the duration, the goal, the challenge type, the eligible activities

• Copy – title, theme, rallying cry, rewards, rules

• Imagery – badge, hero image, reward image, progress milestones (if cumulative)

• Completion link – simple landing page to capture athlete info

Let’s dive into each of these components.

First, think about your main campaign goals and objectives – what are you looking to achieve with this Challenge? Do you want to build brand awareness? Are you looking to boost sales? Maybe you want to grow your community on Strava.  Create a challenge that is geared towards achieving your number one KPI (Key Performance Indicator). 

Duration

Here are a few questions to think about when deciding how long your Challenge should last:

• What time of year is it taking place in? 

• Are there any key events happening around this time (marathons, cycling events, etc)? 

The longer your Challenge remains open on Strava, the more athletes will complete it and the more impressions it, and you, will get.

Goal

When thinking about your objective, consider this question: what is a feasible goal to ask of athletes over this time period? Consider how difficult it is to complete your Challenge. Tip: Don’t make the goal too hard if signups and sales is your main KPI. Ask your Strava Partner or Account Manager for any help – they have a large database of historical challenge data and can give you insights on what has worked well in the past.

Challenge Type

What will an athlete have to do? Here is a breakdown of Challenge types, so you can easily make sure your goal works for your objective:

Eligible Activities

Now for the fun question: Which sport types or activities will count towards the goal? 

Remember: More sport types = higher completion rate. Fewer sport types = a more specialized challenge. 

It’s best to choose the sports / activities for your Challenge's goal based on your campaign’s aims.

Now that you know what type of Challenge and goal you want, it’s time for you to write the copy for it. You can leave out any legal jargon, as our team will provide a few short legal paragraphs for your Challenge. This is your platform, so feel free to use your own brand or personal voice and show Strava’s community who you are! 

Top tip: Keep your text as short and sweet if possible, as the majority of Strava users view Challenges on mobile only, and may not scroll through your beautifully written prose…

Process – Once you have your copy ready, your Strava Account Manager will then review it and provide feedback as necessary. Once finalized, the Challenge will be built and shared with you for your final approval.

Creative Approach – Make sure your copy clearly outlines the theme of your campaign, what athletes must do in order to complete your Challenge, and highlight rewards in a clear and appealing way. Think about what will get people out there and work hard to get their badge and reward! Use the Challenge copy to put your brand front and center. 

Challenge Copy Fields

Challenge Title – Just like an article’s headline, the Challenge title is arguably the most important part of the copy. This is what draws people in! Your Challenge title is how most athletes are going to be exposed to your Challenge, so make it as exciting and appealing as you can to stand out from the crowd. Consider what would entice you to join a Challenge.

Overview

This is the main part of the copy for your Challenge. You have up to 1,500 characters to explain your Challenge theme, goal, reward and also a bit about your brand. Include hyperlinks to your website, content pages or product/event pages, where relevant. This is where you can tell athletes who you are, why you are here and what you can offer to them!

When putting together your Challenge copy it helps to have a theme – for example, can you tie the goal into the distance/duration of an event that your brand is involved with? 

For example, here Montane is challenging athletes to run/hike 30km to celebrate them turning 30 years old.

Or, Craft Sportswear – their 107-minute duration goal represents the 107 miles of the UTMB main event. 

Many partners will find a way to link the Challenge design with the campaign product or event the Challenge is linked to. 

Reward section

Here are our top tips for success (high CTR and redemption rate):

• Make the reward as appealing as possible

• Offer a discount for all finishers plus entry into a prize draw. It’s the best way to maximize reward click-outs

• Offer a unique experience as a prize as a way to stand out from other Challenges

Reward Notification Text

This is your custom text field, which is sent to athletes when they complete your Challenge. It is added to the notification on web and mobile, as well as the completion email.