Admitad and Atlas for Men case study

With affiliate marketing being at its peak in the 4th quarter, Atlas for Men tapped into these opportunities. By engaging new affiliate partners in the affiliate program and utilizing additional forms of promotion on publisher platforms, the company increased sales during Q4 2022. This example demonstrates how to maintain customers’ interest in a brand during periods of high sales.

Brand’s profile

An international company established in 1999, Atlas For Men specializes in outdoor apparel and accessories for men. More than 7 million outdoor enthusiasts enjoy its products in 15 countries. Brands in the company’s portfolio include Atlas for Women, La Comfortaise, and Team Trek.

Since Atlas for Men was founded, the company has consistently grown at a rate of about 15% per year. Over the years, Atlas for Men Group has experienced an increase in revenue, with figures rising from €189 million in 2018 to €276 million in 2021 – a promising trend likely to continue. Since 2010, the company has invested in online brand development and its own e-commerce store, available in language versions catered to each market. 

Campaign objectives

Prior to 2019, 70% of the brand’s full annual results were generated from orders placed from its paper catalog. 

But since then, it has focused on more dynamic online growth. Sales in the online channel were to rise from 30% in 2019 to 50% in 2022, according to Marc Delamarre, the company’s founder and managing director. To increase brand awareness in the ensuing years, the company was to make significant investments in PR and SEO campaigns.  

Formula for success

Atlas for Men managed the affiliate campaign on the Admitad network for two CEE markets, Poland and the Czech Republic. The client wanted to boost conversion rates even more during the busy 2022 season even though it had been experiencing steady growth up to that point. Admitad experts decided to offer additional promotional opportunities and use existing traffic to optimise the Atlas for Men programme because they were aware that the fourth quarter is a crucial time for partner marketing. 

Connecting more publishers to the affiliate programme and activating those who were already interested was a workable strategy that succeeded. Atlas for Men created specific discount codes and provided opportunities for personalised offers such as additional forms of promotion on publishers’ websites, to entice publishers. 

Admitad performance team anticipated that coupon sites, display advertising, cashback platforms, and opinion portals would be the main traffic generators during the peak of 2022, and was not mistaken.

Winning partnerships

From August to September 2022, the number of new publishers acquired to participate in the affilliate program increased by +36%, with more than half of them running coupon sites. As anticipated, these publishers generated up to 66% of all orders placed between September and December 2022 through affiliate marketing programmes, which translated into a sizable portion of the campaign’s profit.

Price comparison sites were also among the successful publishers, generating 11% more than the average basket value during the measured period.

Collaboration results

The programme produced exceptional results between September and November 2022, the prime time for e-commerce sales. In October, the GMV ratio and the volume of orders generated during this period increased by a factor of 4, and after that, by a factor of 2, in November. The campaign increased the GMV ratio by 15 times between September and the end of the sale in November. 

The Atlas for Men brand achieved a significant increase in online sales generated through the e-commerce store. The campaign’s good results continued at a high level for the following months. The December results of the year-on-year program (2021 to 2022) show a GMV increase of more than 545%, while the January results show an increase of 499%. After the success of the campaign, the client is now more open to additional forms of promotion on publisher accounts and offering additional terms of cooperation, knowing that they can translate directly into sales results. In addition, further cooperation has strongly focused on activating publishers who have joined the program but have not yet been active in it.