Why Retail Media Hits Different at Dick’s Sporting Goods
Don’t expect Dick’s Sporting Goods to apologize for getting emotional. That’s its unique selling prop.
In a sea of retail media networks, Dick’s intends to differentiate by cultivating store experiences that not only drive sales but generate lifetime loyalty through the passionate connection of sports.
Every campaign is anchored to its corporate mission of being “the best sports company in the world,” said Ben Weisel, director of media strategy and development at Dick’s Sporting Goods, at P2PI’s Retail Media Summit in May.
Lofty and a bit dramatic? Sure. But that’s sports.
Having this North Star means being choiceful about the brands the retailer partners with and the messages delivered, including with onsite advertising.
For example, while there may be significant audience demographic crossover between golfers and those looking to upgrade their auto tires, Dick’s isn’t as interested in bouncing their website traffic as a whole, Weisel said.
That shopper isn’t on the Dick’s site to buy tires, he noted. “They're not thinking about their car; they're thinking about their golf game. I'd much rather expose them to an ad from Topgolf or one of our brands supporting their latest ball that helps them drive a little bit further out of the tee box.”
Partnerships need to feel authentic to why the Dick’s shopper on the website, and they need to be more than data overlap, he stressed.
“Sometimes what might make common sense as the same person are two very different contexts in which they're engaging with the brand. And we see examples of that all over the place.”
Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness
Retail media continues to be an arms race for attention, “but we've all gotten a little bit smarter,” noted Weisel. “The technology has gotten more sophisticated, so it moved away from who has the biggest audience and who can reach the most people, and turned into who can reach the right people.”
While Weisel acknowledged that “everybody is doing some sort of in-store retail media,” Dick’s position as a specialty retailer taps into shoppers’ emotional journeys by marrying immersive store experiences and a mobile app that’s used very, very, very often.
The retailer, which last week acquired Foot Locker, currently has about 20 House of Sport experiential stores, and it plans to grow them exponentially, with close to 100 by 2027, he said.
Meanwhile, its GameChanger mobile app — which tracks player scores, livestreams youth sports and serves as a coaches’ scheduling tool — had about 9 million active unique users in 2024, according to its most recent earnings information, with an average of almost 1.8 million daily active users.
It also has more livestreams in one year than the entire history of Major League Baseball, said Weisel at Retail Media Summit. (“I had to fact-check that four times because it sounds made up. I promise it's not.”)
GameChanger provides an ocean of shopper data that informs product recommendations based on players’ performance histories and app usage — recommendations that are further refined when shoppers step into a House of Sport HitTrax batting cage.
Providing accurate product recommendations not only drives sales, but they can generate lifetime loyalty by helping build a player’s personal confidence, according to Weisel.
Future of In-Store Screens
In addition to batting cages, ice rinks, rock climbing walls, golf bays and the pumped-in scent of Big League Chew, House of Sports also have screens — Jumbotrons, specifically.
These screens are currently supporting Dick’s own messaging and piping in some ESPN content. While Dick’s intends to advertise in-store services in the longer term, campaigns should be more sophisticated than simple product promotions.
“I don't think it's, ‘Hey, look at this special thing.’ It's, ‘Hey, come back to the store at 9 p.m. because we've got Orange Theory hosting a class in this environment we want you to participate in.’ Or it might be, ‘Hey, there's some programming on the field two days from now that's sponsored by Houston. Come participate with us.’
“That's precious real estate, but we want to make sure it feels additive,” he noted.
