Pentland Brands, a global family business and the owner of iconic sports, outdoor and lifestyle brands including Speedo, Berghaus, Canterbury, Endura, ellesse, Kickers and Mitre, today announces a new partnership with ActiveXchange, the leader in community sport and active recreation data intelligence.
The partnership marks the launch of the first digital “retail media network” (AX Connect), designed specifically for community sport, fitness and recreation, bringing leading retail and consumer brands closer to these providers and the active communities they serve.
AX Connect leverages ActiveXchange’s established digital infrastructure, services, and global industry network to connect Pentland Brands’ portfolio with sport, fitness and recreation providers and their audiences. It enables facilities to amplify their digital retail offering and sports to enhance their commercial offering alongside selected and pre-approved brand partners, creating a new, sustainable revenue stream that supports continued investment in participation and community engagement.
The digital media network is embedded within ActiveXchange’s platform, which already securely integrates and aggregates first-party data on millions of members, players, visits, and activity sessions across the UK, North America and Australasia. ActiveXchange’s privacy-first approach ensures that sport and recreation partners retain full control of their data at all times.
By integrating retail and brand experiences into ActiveXchange’s technology ecosystem, the partnership enables brands to engage consumers at key moments along their activity journey – from discovering and booking activities, through participation and repeat engagement. This creates a more relevant, timely, and data-led approach that benefits brands, providers, and participants alike.
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Better retail returns for partner brands
Additional revenue for activity providers (from existing data)
More active and engaged communities
Currently, the average activity provider generates approximately $14 / £10 in retail spend per member per year, while that same member spends over $4,125 / £3,000 annually on related active lifestyle products and services alone. Retail advertising is four to six times more effective when aligned with an individual’s activity profile. ActiveXchange’s technology bridges this gap, unlocking significant untapped value from facilities and sports member data while maintaining the highest standards of data privacy.
This service enables brands to access this previously unavailable profile data to create better performing digital campaigns to this high spending but often hard to reach audience, and delivers an audience-use fee back to activity providers
“This is a really bright initiative made possible by the smart thinkers at ActiveXchange. Aligning major brands with active communities will add value to their experience and provide a useful new income stream for operators that can extend their community-centric work,” said John Oxley, CEO, Life Leisure.
Importantly, no brand ever directly accesses first-party data. Instead, campaigns are delivered through privacy-compliant, aggregated audience segments, with leading ad-tech ensuring the right message reaches the right member at the right time across a range of digital and social platforms – connecting with consumers where they already are.
The partnership is underpinned by a shared commitment to growing the active community and supporting long-term participation in physical activity.
Jamie Irving, Pentland Brands, said “ActiveXchange’s platform provides a powerful opportunity to connect our brands with consumers in the environments where activity truly happens. Through this partnership, we are able to directly support community sport and recreation while delivering more meaningful and relevant brand engagement. At the same time, it enables us to enhance brand performance and maximise the impact of our media investment.”
Alex Burrows, Founder & CEO, ActiveXchange, added “For several years we have been at the forefront of connecting and transforming data to unlock value for community sport and recreation clients. Opening up AX Connect, and providing a bridge over this data gap, will create additional direct revenue for our network. It’ll mean activity providers globally have additional resources to more effectively grow their active communities. We are delighted to be collaborating closely with Pentland Brands, as part of this industry-first service, to set a new precedent for how retail brands can connect with and grow physical activity globally.”
AX Connect is already being piloted with national sport bodies and facility operators across the UK, United States and Australia, with a rollout to the wider ActiveXchange network and additional brand partners planned over the coming months.
Contact
For brand, sport and facility enquiries, please contact: intelligence@ActiveXchange.com
