Salomon’s AU/NZ head of marketing Briony Kent says the brand has torn up the standard retail opening playbook and replaced it with organic content, hyper-local activations and a 12-month shoe giveaway that costs less than a traditional launch and lands harder.
"If we all just keep doing this same thing, where we cut the ribbon, and we put a post on socials, and we do some form of activation or customisation – you can get that everywhere," Kent tells Ragtrader. "There's nothing unique about it. There's nothing that really sparks intrigue or interest with the customer."
The strategy was put to the test at the brand's Highpoint Shopping Centre opening in Melbourne's west in late May, where Kent and retail marketing lead Oskar Molini partnered with content production company OneHouse to execute a three-part teaser campaign entirely through organic social, with no paid spend behind the content itself.
The first post, dropped a month before opening, showed a barbecue outside a local market with no location revealed – just enough to get the community guessing. A second post two weeks later placed the camera outside Sun Cinemas, confirming the Highpoint location. A week out, a third video showed a runner emerging from bushland to find a Highpoint sign. The series landed 10,600 likes, 3,005 saves and 125 comments on a single post.
For Kent, saves are the metric that matters most. "People are saving it for intent," she says. "In our minds, you're saving that down to go re-look at it, or remember that that's happening or coming. It's the intent of wanting to save this to come back and be a part of the moment."
The social push was finally backed by just $2,000 in paid spend, used only to boost a post detailing the opening day activities.
"We wanted to test it organically," Kent says. "We thought, let's throw some incredibly talented creatives at it and see what happens – and the results were way more than we could have ever expected."
On opening day, the brand drew lines with a goodie bag containing a branded tote, custom Salomon mugs, carabiners, discount codes of over $50 for S Plus loyalty members, a Salomon necklace, and a hidden $2,000 gift card redeemable across the year.
"We are quite a high price point brand, and we're in a cost-of-living crisis, so it's a good way to be able to give back to our customers," Kent said, noting previous openings had drawn between 100 and 200 people queuing.
The in-store activation was complemented by a community running event held away from the store entirely – a gravel run departing from a local bar, followed by a two-hour social with catering from a nearby bakery and a bar tab.
"It's not necessarily about getting people into the store," Kent says. "It's about driving awareness and consideration of the store and of the brand, and connecting with the community in a way that feels really authentic to them."
The formula – 12-month shoe giveaway, goodie bags, localised run activation – is now being treated as a repeatable template. What changes store to store are the run location, the catering partner and the bar. What stays constant is the pre-launch content strategy, which Kent describes as the non-negotiable.
"We'll localise the content and put a lot of our focus and energy into that, because it's what's going to drive the awareness," she says.
The approach matters more as Salomon moves into new territory. The brand is preparing to open a store on the Gold Coast and another in Perth in the back half of the year, with Perth flagged as a particular challenge given no direct-to-consumer presence or meaningful marketing history in the market.
"We're about to go into states that we haven't been in before, so that will be even more important," Kent says.
Internally, the brand’s Australian arm has also been restructuring its marketing team, splitting into two dedicated leads – one for performance, one for sport style. Kent said the split reflects a need to double down on Salomon's performance heritage even as sport style drives growth.
"We're spending 70 per cent of our budget on performance, which does not stack up to the sales mix," she said. "We really need to double down and lean into this performance space."
A Bondi store is also confirmed, with Kent describing it as requiring an entirely different content approach to Highpoint. "It's a completely different consumer and way of life in those spaces," she says. That opening is expected at the end of July.
The Highpoint opening is part of a broader events-led approach that Kent says has become central to Salomon's Australian retail strategy. The brand ran 70 events in the first half of the year alone, with another 70 to 100 planned for the back half.
"We host so many events," Kent says. "What else is community, and how does it get deeper?"