The challenge
Academy Sports & Outdoors employs thousands of people who genuinely know their categories — the associate who rigs rods every weekend, the one who has run in every shoe on the wall, the one who has seasoned a hundred griddles. That expertise closes sales on the floor every day. Online, the catalog got specs and a stock photo, and none of that expertise reached the shopper.
They needed that floor knowledge on the site itself — thousands of products deep, in the categories where a shopper genuinely cannot decide from a spec sheet.
The approach
Team turned 800+ associates into content creators. Each one gets a storefront, a feed of campaigns to opt into, and credit for what they sell — so the person who knows the category is the person on camera, filming in their own department.
Site puts that library everywhere it earns attention. Customizable widgets place associate video on product pages, in category and department hubs, in outfitting guides and seasonal landing pages — each layout tuned to Academy’s own design, filling dynamically by SKU so a rod page gets a rod video and a griddle page gets a griddle demo. One library, dozens of placements, no manual merchandising.
“Our associates know these categories better than any agency ever will. Now that knowledge is on the product page, not just on the floor.”
The results
Video enriched the catalog at a scale photography never could, and Track priced it — every view, session and order tied back to the associate and the department that earned it.
- →9.8% on-site conversion rate on sessions that engage with associate video.
- →3X time on site where associate content runs alongside the product.
- →6.5% social engagement rate on organic associate posts.
- →800+ associates creating content across every specialty department.