Top Performing Social Media Channels for Athletic Apparel Brands in Q2 2023

Key Takeaways

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Platform Recommendations

• TikTok is the leading platform in terms of views and engagements. All competitors are seeing rapid audience growth on this platform and share an average of 69 posts per month. Find a face of the company to experiment with brand voice and lean into content trends here. Ideal video duration is under 30 seconds. 
• Instagram is the second leading platform in terms of audience size, views, and engagements. All competitors are active here and share an average of 95 posts per month. Focus your strategy here and prioritize images. 
• Facebook's total audience size is the highest among all platforms. Facebook’s total number of engagements falls behind TikTok & Instagram, however, their average engagements per post are significantly high. With an average of 32 posts per month, brands should prioritize sharing video content to leverage Facebook's potential for producing viral videos.
• Twitter is the third-largest platform among the brands. Prioritize sharing visually engaging photo tweets, responsible for 38% of all tweets and yielding the highest engagement. Aim to post frequently, following the average brand benchmark of 93 tweets per month to optimize content reach and user engagement. 
• Although YouTube has the smallest audience share, it offers growth potential, as demonstrated by its +5% YoY growth in total followers. Concentrate on producing 30+ minute videos, yielding the highest average views and engagements, despite only making up 4% of shared content. Maintain an active presence, following the average of 35 uploads per month.

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Suggestions to Action this Social Channel Scan™ 

• Prioritize Instagram and TikTok as primary channels.
• Use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as supplementary platforms to complement and amplify your social media strategy for maximum impact.

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The Purpose of This Research:

• ‍Determine which competitors are winning and losing in terms of social media performance.  ‍
• ‍See which social media channels are driving the best results for competitors.‍
• ‍Understand seasonal, YoY, and tactical trends in competitors’ social media activity.

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Competitors Analyzed

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Total Audience Size Per Brand

As of April 2023

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As of April 2023, Lacoste has the largest audience at 25M followers, almost 2x the followers of The North Face.

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Lacoste experienced the largest surge in its audience, amassing +2M followers across its social media platforms in one year.

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Burton stood out among the teams with the highest audience growth rate of +18% YoY. 

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Amongst the competitive set, Facebook boasts the most extensive audience with 28M followers, followed by Instagram.

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TikTok's audience size has surged by +178% YoY, highlighting its growing popularity amongst the competitive set.

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Lacoste leads on Facebook with 16M followers, followed by The North Face (7M) and Lululemon (3M).

*% of total audience

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The audience growth on Facebook was minimal across all brands, with the combined audience only increasing by +2% YoY.

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Lacoste leads on Instagram with 7M followers, followed by The North Face and Lululemon both tied at 5M. 

*% of total audience

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Burton (+14%), Lacoste (+13%), and Lululemon (+11%) saw the largest average growth on Instagram.

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Twitter audience makes up less than 5% of the competitive set’s total audience, with exception to Lululemon (11%) and Burton (7%). 

*% of total audience

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Lacoste (+9%) and The North Face (+7%) saw the largest growth on Twitter.

The rest of the competitive set saw an average of less than 1% growth.

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On TikTok, the audience size is closely distributed amongst the competitive set.

Burton has the largest total audience percentage on TikTok at 18%.

*% of total audience

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The competitive set displayed the largest growth on TikTok.

Lacoste (+8161%) had the biggest increase in followers. Average growth rate for the rest of the competitive set was +121% YoY.

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Lacoste’s TikTok account grew an average of 83% per month. 

However, this growth displayed no apparent correlation to post cadence. 

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Lacoste’s TikTok Strategy 

Lacoste’s TikTok account increased significantly in the past year. During the analysis period, the posts with the highest combined views and engagement included a “what are you wearing” video, “unboxing” video, and a “upcycling” video. 

Content Tactics

• ‍TikTok Trends: Use trending formats such as #whatareyouwearing to connect with viewers and increase the likelihood of appearing on the For You Page.
• ‍Playful Tone: A playful tone in their content has created a brand voice that is fun and appeals to the young adult audience on the platform.
• ‍User-Generated Content: The brand encourages viewers to tag Lacoste to be featured, and shares user-generated content, such as this video.
• ‍Short & Sweet Captions: Captions used on Lacoste’s profile usually consist of 1-2 short sentences max.
• ‍On-Screen Text: Having text that displays the dialogue of the video in easily readable font grabs attention and increases click rates.  
• ‍Frequently Used Hashtags: #Lacoste #LacosteArena #LAClubLacoste #upcycling #sneakerhead 

7.8M Views

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7.4M Views

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2.9M Views

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YouTube represents the smallest audience share. 

The North Face leads at 487K, while Lululemon, Salomon, and Burton all surpass 200K subscribers.

*% of total audience

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Salomon (+9%) saw the largest average growth on YouTube. 

The average growth for the competitive set was 5%.

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Total Posts Per Brand

From April 2022 to March 2023

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Salomon shared 1.6x more than the average number of posts between the competitive set on Instagram (230 posts).

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Brands posted an average of 95 posts per month on Instagram. Salomon, The North Face, & Burton saw the biggest spike in Nov 2022.

Salomons' most viewed video was a repost of a user-generated upcycling video.

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Among the platforms, Twitter had the second-largest volume of content, with Salomon and Lacoste being the most active brands. 

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On average brands tweeted 93 times per month, with a notable increase in June when Lacoste shared 63 tweets.

Lacoste's most engaged tweet extended congratulations to Novak Djokovic for his record win.

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Salomon and Lululemon led the way in sharing content on TikTok, with 231 and 218 posts over the 12-month period, respectively.

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Brands averaged 69 videos uploaded per month on TikTok. Salomon saw the greatest spike, sharing 32 videos in May & Aug 2022.

Salomon’s videos in centered around building excitement for their running shoes and their snowboards.

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Only Salomon, The North Face, and Burton were active in posting on YouTube, averaging 133 videos between these 3 brands.  

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Brands averaged 35 YouTube videos per month, with content spiking in January at 97 total uploads for the entire competitive set.

During January, Salomon’s top video was a YouTube Short featuring athlete, Jessie Diggins. 

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Facebook saw the least amount of uploads among all platforms (384).

Salomon had the most posts with 254 uploads, followed by Burton with 118.

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Brands averaged 32 monthly posts on Facebook, peaking in April at 48 posts.

Salomon’s most viewed Facebook video in April featured a short POV skiing video.

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On Instagram, competitors generated the highest average engagements from images, which make up only 9% of all posts. 

Instagram posts from April 2022 to March 2023.

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On Twitter, photo tweets generated the most engagement and were the most popular format, accounting for 38% of all shared tweets. 

Twitter posts from April 2022 to March 2023.

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On TikTok, 84% of videos were 30 seconds, yielding the highest average views and engagements at 18K.

*TikTok posts from April 2022 to March 2023.

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On Facebook, video posts attracted the highest average engagement, making up 53% of the content shared, followed by photo posts (46%).

Facebook posts from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Videos greater than 30 minutes long generated the most views and engagements on average (2K), making up only 4% of all content. 

YouTube posts from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Combined video viewership has been trending upwards.

Emphasizing the successful expansion of the brands' social media presences and their effectiveness in connecting with their growing audiences.

*Combined total of views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from the 5 teams included in the competitive set.

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The North Face is the clear leader in terms of total video views, generating 469M views.

*Combined total video views from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Lululemon has the highest video views per follower rates, indicating strong audience engagement. 

*Combined total video views from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Although The North Face had the highest total video views, its low views per follower rate suggest weaker audience engagement.

*Combined total video views from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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From April 2022 to March 2023, TikTok generated the highest number of views across platforms.

Video Views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube between April 2022 and March 2023.

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Instagram had the highest average video views per video, standing at 1.2M views per video.

Video Views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube between April 2022 and March 2023.

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TikTok accounted for the greatest share of views for all teams, with The North Face’s 393M representing 84% of its total views. 

*% share of total views

*Combined total of video views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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The North Face saw two surges in TikTok views in October 2022 and January 2023, which can be attributed to the following three videos.

Videos generated 54M, 20M and 17M total views.

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Additionally, Burton saw a spike in TikTok views in January 2023 due to a snowboarding ASMR video which generated over 21M views.

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Burton had the highest number of Instagram views at 52M, followed closely by The North Face at 50M. The average total video views among the competitive set was 41M.

*% share of total views

*Combined total of video views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Burton had a surge in Instagram views in June 2022, with the following two videos generating a combined total of 117M views.

Videos featured a Father's Day post and Pierre Linckenheld's spring ride in the last of the snow. 

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The North Face had a surge in Instagram views in July 2022, with the following two videos generating a combined total of 117M views.Videos featured a tent set-up vlog and warranty workshop tour.

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The North Face’s YouTube views are neck and neck with Lacoste, with Lacoste leading by 4M.

*% share of total views

*Combined total of video views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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In October 2022, The North Face's It's More Than a Jacket campaign video generated a surge in YouTube viewership.The video generated over 11M views.

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Salomon's 33M Facebook views accounted for 34% of its total views, while for the rest of the competitive set, it was less than 2%.

*% share of total views

*Combined total of video views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Salomon's Facebook viewership surged twice due to viral videos featuring Philipp Reiter's extreme POV and Santa's paraglide delivery. Videos generated 11M and 14M views on Facebook.

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Twitter made up less than 2% of total video views for the entire competitive set.

*% share of total views

*Combined total of video views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube from April 2022 to March 2023.

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Burton saw considerable viewership growth on Twitter in the year's last six months, as video uploads increased from 43 to 103.

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Burton leads the pack in total engagements at 9.4M followed by Lacoste with 8.2M.

Video Views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube between April 2022 and March 2023.

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Burton leads with a 0.5% engagement rate. 

Video Views from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube between April 2022 and March 2023.

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TikTok & Instagram notably outperformed other platforms in ‍terms of engagement. Generating on average 5X more than the cumulative total of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube combined.

Total Engagements from April 2022 and March 2023.

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TikTok leads in engagement per post, averaging 12K engagements per video, followed by Instagram at 9K.

Total Engagements from April 2022 and March 2023.

*Combined total audience from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter as of April 2023.

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