Swinging for the green

As a new Spring sales season ramped up, a slew of critical new product launches – and TaylorMade’s status as a market leader – hung in the balance. TaylorMade needed to fend off a host of challenger brands by reasserting its leadership position and energizing its connection with golfers.

As a leader in product innovation, TaylorMade required a digital presence to match. The previously untapped opportunity to translate digital into valuable utility could provide an edge to drive sales, connect with customers and leave the competition behind.

HELPING THE HANDICAP

In the fickle category of golf equipment, market leader TaylorMade needed to engage golfers with utility that would help improve their game.

SO ADVANCED, IT’S SCARY

Some equipment is so innovative, the learning curve required to use it properly is intimidating. Groundbreaking new clubs like the R1 Driver would sell big, then often wind up sitting unused in golf bags.

GETTING A HANDS-ON GRIP

Because premium golf equipment is a high-involvement purchase, golfers are generally unlikely to purchase these products without trying them out first.

Amp created a connected, digital ecosystem for TaylorMade where every touch point was designed to evoke the tactile in-store experience of handling the equipment up close. This not only drove users towards retail, but also underscored TaylorMade’s innovation through interactions that were as streamlined and sophisticated as the products themselves.

Product Experience Pages: Showcasing Innovation

We overhauled TaylorMade’s product experience pages to transform what were once simple, no-frills retail pages into robust product showcases.

We jettisoned TaylorMade’s existing print-oriented banners to create display ads that evoke the style and sophistication of the products. These drive consumers to the website and digital experience pages – and, ultimately, to purchase.

Product Experience Videos: Flight Control

Select product experience pages also include interactive video features that allow each golfer to determine the potential benefit a specific piece of equipment will have on his or her individual swing.

Our comprehensive redesign of TaylorMade.com introduces new visual and experiential elements to the site that are more closely aligned with the brand than its predecessor.

A cleaner navigation offers a better browsing experience, while bigger, bolder visuals contributed to a more compelling aesthetic.

Recognizing the mobility of active golfers, we prioritized a mobile-friendly responsive design makeover designed to engage visitors from desktop to putting green – and everywhere in between.

The redesigned site also takes into consideration TaylorMade’s place within the larger Adidas family, doing so with such effectiveness that its templates were eventually utilized across all Adidas Golf brands.

To better connect the physical golf world to TaylorMade’s digital ecosystem and reduce audience fragmentation across the web, we embedded streaming off-site product announcements into the TaylorMade homepage, essentially creating contextual day-long product campaigns.

For TaylorMade’s groundbreaking top-of-the-line driver, we developed an app so innovative it became a part of the product itself. The R1 mobile tuning app helps golfers tune the club in real time, on the golf course, which became a key selling point in the product marketing.

The app also helps extend marketing efforts by allowing users another opportunity to browse the full range of TaylorMade products from anywhere.

To implement this platform, we prioritized journey touch points, established channel roles and focused resources where Taylormade could achieve its greatest impact.