Year In Sport: How brands motivated our community in 2023

As we begin to set goals and motivate ourselves to make 2024 our best year yet, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the accomplishments from 2023. Records beat, miles logged – and yes, brands growing on the Strava platform.

Our annual Year In Sport celebration commemorates the individual accomplishments, outstanding athletes, and engaging clubs that power our purpose and keep us moving forward.

But what does this mean for brands who tap into Strava to connect with the athletic community? We had to know.

Through the lens of Sponsored Challenges, we've analyzed how these unique activations have helped brands increase awareness and reach their goals – while providing motivational fuel to millions upon millions of Strava users.

By the Numbers

Strava Challenges offer a way to connect with users in an authentic way – and have become a unique, loved advertising format among brands and consumers alike. And they’re still gaining steam: Participation increased 24% over 2022.

Truly, no other native advertising format enables brands to integrate into the  everyday routine of millions of people around the world. Challenge athletes logged 48.8 million miles (or 78.6 million kilometers) and over 5 million hours of activity. That’s nearly 165 trips to the moon and back, and the equivalent of working out for 580 years without so much as a water break.

Reaching New Audiences

Strava is one of the leading channels to reach committed endurance athletes and casual exercise enthusiasts across all genders, disciplines, and ages. Plus, as our platform continues to grow, we’ve also seen Challenge participation increase among women, under-18s, and Gen Z athletes (18-26) – so brands can feel confident in reaching the right audience on Strava, regardless of who they serve.

Brand Metrics

Every challenge is different from the get-go. Some brands target all athletes, regardless of sport type or location, while others choose to do regional activations. Some brands choose solely on big & bold brand awareness campaigns, while others focus on driving ROI. Thus, impressions, clickthrough rates, and other challenge metrics vary widely.

That said, throughout the year, Strava assesses the overall impact of Challenges – surveying users quarterly to track brand recall and intent to purchase for our partner brands. And our research has shown that, quite simply, these Challenges yield significant results for brands - regardless of the goal.

Significant uplift compared to other channels

Looking across all Challenges in 2023, Strava drove a remarkable 104% uplift in average brand recall and 35% uplift in average intent to purchase. This, compared to traditional TV advertising, which generates an average uplift of 12% brand recall and 7% purchase intent, makes it hard for brand marketers not to consider Strava when planning their media spend in 2024 and beyond.

Bonus: Most popular shoe brands in running Challenges

Gear stats were a hit in this year’s Year In Sport Trend Report,  so we had to know – what was the most popular shoe by brand used in activities logged in running Challenges across 2023?

What's Next?

2024 is already off to strong start. Brands like The North Face, MINI, Brooks and even Chipotle have kicked off the year with Challenges – inspiring healthy habits and friendly competition as we kick into gear this year.

We're also introducing new ways to connect with the Strava community. Through Strava Stories, brands can continue to motivate audiences and educate athletes, while building their brand presence. KT Tape and Molly Seidel collaborated with our team for a post on how to master a marathon; JOIN Cycling gave aspiring amateurs four lessons to learn from the world's best. Our audiences love learning from experts, and our brand partners love the results they drive through Strava.

Ready to make 2024 one for your own record books? Let's go.