74 Million+ Voice Volume, How Can Outdoor Brands Break Through Using Social Media Information?
By Jotham Lim
8 min read
Data Explanation
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Voice Volume: the total number of posts, that is, the sum of the posts containing the current keyword.
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Interaction Volume: the sum of likes, shares and comments on the corresponding posts, used to evaluate how popular those posts are.
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Filter Rules: based on Moojing Social Listening, posts on leading Chinese social media platforms from February 2023 to January 2024 containing the keywords "outdoor" or "outdoor sports".
With spring arriving and temperatures rising, enthusiasm for outdoor sports is also set to grow.
Online spending on outdoor sports products grew rapidly in 2023. According to Moojing Analysis+ data, the market for outdoor apparel on mainstream e-commerce platforms exceeded 30 billion yuan in 2023, with growth of nearly 100%, far ahead of the other apparel segments.
Discussion of outdoor topics on social platforms also grew. Moojing Social Listening shows that from February 2023 to January 2024, the number of posts related to outdoor or outdoor sports reached 74.57 million, a month-on-month increase of 38.33%. Since the pandemic eased, people have become much keener to take part in outdoor sports, as more consumers pay attention to their physical and mental health and take up outdoor activities and sports to relieve stress.
Sociable, Seeking Pleasure, The Young Generation Falls in Love With Outdoor Sports#
Outdoor sports are especially popular with young people in cities. According to Moojing Social Listening, the audience for outdoor sports content is evenly split by gender, and is younger and more urban than average.
Specifically, the core audience is concentrated in economically developed regions such as first-tier and new first-tier cities. Women account for 52.7%, slightly more than men, and people under 35 make up nearly 60% of the audience. It is worth noting that people over 50 also hold a 14% share, as more older people take up outdoor activities.
A recent industry whitepaper on spring and summer sports and outdoor trends for 2024 indicates that consumers aged 18-29 account for nearly 40% of spring and summer sports and outdoor spending on a leading Chinese marketplace. It also finds that young people like to socialise and learn during outdoor activities, placing weight on personal fulfilment and on the social side of the experience.
For young people, going outdoors is about fitness and also about the carefree experience of being "on the road", spending time in nature and coming to understand themselves better along the way. The posts they share on social media suggest that, for young people, outdoor sports can be a journey of personal change, which matches the wider market trend of young consumers placing importance on spiritual consumption and self-fulfilment.
Leisure Outdoors Dominates, Parent-Child Scenarios Are Worth Engaging#
Outdoor sports take place in many settings and cover a wide range of activities and experiences, from mountains and forests to rivers and beaches, and they call for different skills and levels of physical effort.
Some people choose to walk through forests, streams and snowy mountains to experience nature up close, while others enjoy the higher heart rate of cycling. Moojing Social Listening data shows that social media content related to outdoor sports mainly involves common activities such as hiking, fishing and camping.
A user survey by the same marketplace found that the five most popular outdoor sports among young people are hiking, mountain climbing, cycling, camping and skiing.
Outdoor sports can be roughly divided into hardcore and leisure categories, according to how difficult they are to take part in and how physically demanding they are. Activities such as mountain climbing, skiing, rafting and rock climbing belong to the first group and have a higher threshold for participation. Hiking, camping, cycling, fishing and frisbee, by contrast, focus more on leisure and social contact, have a lower threshold and a broader audience, and are well suited to newcomers.
Hiking is the most popular of these activities on social media. Moojing Social Listening shows that from February 2023 to January 2024 the voice volume for content related to outdoor hiking reached 60.2 million, a month-on-month increase of 30.24%. Overall, discussion of outdoor sports on social media platforms focuses mainly on leisure activities.
A cross-analysis of scene and audience also shows that "parent-child" is one of the main audience groups in every outdoor activity scene.
Hiking and camping are common outdoor activities for families. China Economic News Network reported that in 2020 people in China went camping 360 million times, mostly younger people and young families aged 21-45. Outdoor sports brands should take the specific needs of this group into account in product design and marketing, so that their products address the problems these consumers actually face.
From Social Media Voice Volume to E-commerce Sales, Which Outdoor Brands Have Made a Breakthrough?#
Outdoor activities use a great deal of equipment. Hardcore activities such as skiing require professional gear such as snowboards, ski suits and protective equipment, and even leisure activities such as hiking and camping require participants to buy clothing, footwear, tents and cooking gear. As outdoor sports have spread to a much wider audience over the past three years, the outdoor products industry has grown rapidly.
According to the "Category Discovery" dashboard of Moojing Social Listening, items such as hardshell jackets, speakers, tents, down jackets and sun protection clothing have appeared frequently in outdoor activity content over the past year.
Content that gains momentum on social media often carries over to e-commerce platforms and feeds back into online sales.
Hardshell jackets are one example: according to Moojing Analysis+ data, the market for hardshell jackets on mainstream e-commerce platforms exceeded 7.5 billion yuan over a rolling year, with year-on-year growth of 85.2%. Sales peaked during the Double 11 period.
How to use content marketing and trending events to bring a product's features to shoppers on e-commerce platforms, and so create a hit product, is a question that new consumer brands have to answer.
The online market for hardshell jackets is highly competitive, and Camel and Pelliot are two brands that have built a strong presence in social media discussion of outdoor sports. Both used social media content marketing and product seeding notes, brought ideas about outdoor fashion into their messaging, and strengthened their brand mindshare around "cost-effectiveness", "functionality" and "aesthetics".
Summary#
The outdoor market is entering a phase of consolidation, with frequent reports of brand store closures and start-up failures. As competition intensifies, we believe that understanding consumer needs through social media topics, finding new marketing scenarios and building differentiated strategies will be how brands break through and win.
Every day, hundreds of millions of people interact and share their opinions on social platforms. Moojing Social Listening draws on extensive public social media data and offers modules for audience analysis, user profiles, scenarios, categories and brands, which help brands follow popular trends, understand their target users and discover new market demand.
For more social media data on "Outdoor Sports", please subscribe to the Moojing Social Listening product. We will also regularly analyse popular topics and products on social media.
The social media insights above are based on research from the Moojing Social Listening platform. By analysing posts on leading Chinese social media platforms, brands can discover consumer hotspots and also apply the same research in more general scenarios, such as:
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Insight into the Needs, Pain Points, and Usage Scenarios of the Product's Target Audience
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Sorting Through Consumer Experience and Satisfaction to Timely Improve Product Quality
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Analysis of Competing Products and Their Popularity to Uncover the Reasons Behind Bestsellers
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Viewing Market Heat Trends and Emerging Demands, Empowering Product Innovation and Development Direction
All of these scenarios can be addressed through the Moojing Social Listening platform. We also hope to work with brands on more applications of the platform, helping them understand user needs and explore consumer scenarios through social media hotspots, so that they can innovate in their products and grow their brands.
If you would like to know more about consumer hotspots and gain deeper insights into consumers, please contact us.
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