Social Content Opportunities For the Trail Running Audience in Q1 2024

Purpose of This Research

• ‍Identify white space content opportunities‍
• ‍Identify replicable production elements (formats, editing techniques, etc) that contribute to those content opportunities‍
• ‍Identify content themes that are not performing well and may be avoided‍

‍In order to drive the most effective channel-agnostic content strategy possible to resonate with the Trail Running audience.

‍

The 1-Minute Gist

Organic audiences respond to content that demonstrates real trail experiences. 

Introduce new products through videos that address and show:

• A glimpse into the lives of trail runners who are candidly sharing their running experiences.
• Where the best trails are for underrated views and landscapes.    
• Content showing that your brand “gets it” and is a source of knowledge on the subject of trail running. 

Use effects and creative editing to enhance the production value of content.  

Organic audiences like to be inspired or entertained with content:

• Experiment with effects such as fast forwarding, animations, or social media features like pinned fan comments.
• Keep content organic by using a mix of shots in action while still exploring the details of your product.
• Provide value to the community by inspiring improvement with content like training tips.

Visual and audio trends…

• Top-performing organic content is often captured using long shots in-motion.

• ‍Top-performing organic content by brands (or partnerships) is often clean, light and simple. 

‍

‍

Excellent content themes in the Trail Running space.

‍

Good content themes in the Trail Running space.

‍

Okay content themes in the Trail Running space.

‍

Poor content themes in the Trail Running space.

‍

‍

Scenic Trail Gems

Create a series that highlights unique trails around Europe.

This content pairs wide-angle shots of runners against stunning natural backdrops, capturing the allure and tranquillity of trail running.

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• Simply show the trail runner amidst their landscape. These videos don't feature narratives or captions.
• Emphasize stabilized long shots following the runner in motion. Videos that incorporated this generated +194% more views and engagements than POV content.
• Include music on top of voice-overs or original audio. Videos that combined audio types saw 167% more views and engagements than original audio videos.
• Work with brand ambassadors to host their favourite trail running footage in a similar organic style.   

Examples

Views 6.8M | Engagements 460K 

‍

Views 1.3M | Engagements 77K 

‍

Views 632K | Engagements 39K 

‍

“Run With Me” Vlog

Build connection and community with Vlogs. 

Vlogs offer a mix of selfie to documentary-style content as a creator connects with their audience to share the real ups and downs of their runs.

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• Provide geographical context while running by displaying the route on a map or updating viewers with kilometre-by-kilometre updates. 
• Effects such as fast forwarding, animations, or pinned fan comments, generated 61% more views and engagements than videos without effects. 
• Add music to your video. Vlogs performed +270% better when additional audio was incorporated.
• Get Trail creators in your product to share their experience and comfort over long distances as they take their viewers along for the ride.

Examples

This creator decided to theme her video based on a viewer comment she replied to.

Views 530K | Engagements 51K 

‍

Views 462K | Engagements 12K 

‍

Views 350K | Engagements 16K 

‍

Inside Jokes

Address the quirks and challenges of running candidly within the community.

These videos use trending soundbites and clips to discuss the hard moments in trail running that all participants can identify with.

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• Keep videos short, 78% are under 15 seconds. 
• Apply jokes to trending visual and audio cues.
• Use text on-screen to help lead the viewers through the storyline.
• Where appropriate, look for opportunities to use trending content to show the struggles trail runners have before and after your product.

Examples

Views 841K | Engagements 57K 

‍

Views 572K | Engagements 6.4K 

‍

Views 419K | Engagements 25K 

‍

Products In Action

Demonstrate the durability and quality of your product in practice.

These videos have a range of customer reviews to feature specific highlights (waterproofing) or show products in practical use. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• Add music VS voiceovers as the main audio on these videos. Videos that didn't feature voiceovers generated +89% more views and engagements.
• Showcase product in action over a series of shots that switch between running and highlighting product details.
• Remove on-screen captions. Videos with no on-screen captions amassed 102% more views and engagements than those that did. 
• Use the “product-in-action” format type to showcase new and existing products, but don’t discount the effectiveness of having influencers try and review your products. 

Examples

Views 701K | Engagements 13K 

‍

Experiment with ASMR to show your product in detail while catering to a popular form of content.

Views 350K | Engagements 6K 

‍

Views 219K | Engagements 2.3K 

‍

Routines & Education

Create a series guiding trail runners on how to improve speed and technique with specific tips.

This content mixes relevant educational topics such as general tips, technique breakdowns, injury prevention, and workout routine videos to improve the viewer’s confidence and ability. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• 94% of videos made use of captions to further explain content. 
• ‍Introduce videos by addressing common problems trail runners face and then offer solutions. 
• Experiment by quantifying how many tips you'll be sharing in your video, 39% of videos tried this tactic.
• Work with athletes or in-house trainers to produce a series of content to help trail runners improve their experience. Feature your product in each video and think of tips that relate to the way we use it to improve the running experience.

‍

Examples

Views 1M | Engagements 18K 

‍

Views 1M | Engagements 6.5K 

‍

Views 399K | Engagements 15K 

‍

Viral Outliers

Viral Outlier posts exceed the average view and engagement benchmark for their content theme by 3x.

‍

Competition Highlights

This video shares a wholesome moment between a father and his son where the son has made a certificate for him after completing a race. 

Views 3.7M | Engagements 134K 

‍

This video shows a montage of Lisa Migliorini (@the fashionjogger) winning the Petra Desert half marathon with various moments throughout the race from start to finish. 

Views 3.5M | Engagements 201K 

‍

 Interviews 

This is a podcast snippet of professional racer, Mathieu Blanchard telling a story about a teammate who ate an unusual diet of a huge serving of Nutella on bread then separated from the Salomon team and managed to summit the Mont-Blanc marathon.

Views 1.6M | Engagements 59K 

‍

Training Routine & Education

This video explains why breaking down a 10k run into portions can help improve performance. The video uses one shot for the entire clip and provides text on the screen to guide the viewer to the caption with more information. 

Views 1.2M | Engagements 7.3K 

‍

‍Content Theme Definitions‍

Scenic Trail Gems: Highlight some of the most serene and unique trails around the world, typically filmed following a runner on the trail. 

“Run With Me” Vlog: Compile authentic video logs where runners bring their viewers alongside them during their adventures. 

Inside Jokes: Use humour to present what trail running life has been like before and after the introduction of your product.

Products In Action: Product-focused clips mainly highlighting products or product features in action.

Routines & Education: Share unique and specific advice as it relates to trail running training routines and educational topics. 

Extreme Trails: Present a variety of adrenaline-fuelled content showing runners taking the sport to the extreme. 

Interviews: Showcase clips of professional runners sharing insight and stories into their lives and professions. 

Favourite Run Spot: List-formatted videos of people sharing their local or favourite run spots. 

Race Training: People showing how they train, prepare and gamify their pre-race periods.

Runspiration: Inspirational content that shows beautiful clips with text that encourages viewers to engage in the sport. 

Competition Highlights: Compilations of the best moments from different races.

Race Promotion: Content promoting different race events and series around-the-world. 

‍

*For videos in this content category. View + Engagement data collected via direct social media platform API.

*Measured by Average Views + Engagements