Chinese sportswear giant Anta has teamed up with the Chinese National Geography (CNG) magazine for a podcast on domestic podcast provider Xiaoyuzhou.
The show features gurus of outdoor exploration discussing the sublime beauty of the outdoors, as well as sharing practical survival skills. The podcast is part of their collaborative cultural IP “甲行天下”, which means walking the earth in armour.
In September, Anta and CNG teamed up for a video, the first incarnation of “甲行天下”, in which outdoor influencers explored a rainforest. The armour, or “甲” at the time stood for Anta’s high-performance anti-storm outdoor jacket called “风暴甲”, Storm Mecha. But for the latest podcast, as winter sets in, the destination was shifted to snowy terrains of high altitudes. The armour now is the ”冰甲羽绒”, or ice armour down jackets.
Brands are leveraging podcasts as a way to build community. Not only are luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton using their podcasts to showcase cultural value, but Patagonia, another outdoor brand, has also successfully built a community around its podcast.
Although the hashtag #甲行天下# has a modest 4.87 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the first episode of Anta and CNG’s podcast garnered 7,610 listens and 37 comments on the Xiaoyuzhou platform. Patagonia’s podcast “Patagoniac”, in comparison, gets about 2,000 listens for more popular episodes.
Anta, who owns gorpcore brands Arc’teryx and Salomon, is entering the outdoor trend with its main brand. By collaborating with one of the authorities on outdoor content, the CNG magazine, Anta has been able to invite respected guests and explore extreme locations to showcase the performance of its garments. By not only diversifying destinations but also diversifying the format from video to podcast, the project can capture and keep the interest of its target audiences.
