Positively impacting lives through digital experiences in sport.

About

About.

Rory Whitson is a charismatic relationship builder with more than 10 years experience in the sporting goods industry.

"My career so far has spanned across go-to-market strategy, membership, apps, ecommerce growth, partnerships, marketing and sales but I strongly believe that my successes to date have come as a result of my ability to bring people together. My energetic positivity coupled with my results driven mindset have allowed me to exceed all commercial targets to date but it is my experience of inspiring and leading my teams and key stakeholders which makes me most proud."

"My strengths lie in identifying opportunities in data, empathising with our consumers and building holistic digital strategies which not only enhance lives through sport but deliver against our commercial KPIs."

The journey so far.

Director of Membership Engagement - Sports Apps (Global)

adidas HQ, Germany

March 2021 - Current

Leading the sports apps membership, activation and partnerships teams at adidas to deliver against our 5 year digital brand strategy

Established and driving the x-platform/app digital strategy to incentivise adidas consumers to get active in sport and to reward those active with incentives to buy at adidas

Acquire - Engage - Convert

MAUs - CLTV - AOF - Net Sales

Explore adidas Running

Senior Manager - Digital Business Development (Global)

adidas HQ, Germany

Nov 2019 - March 2021

Leading the digital go-to-market strategy for adidas specialist sports to deliver against ecommerce growth KPIs

Relaunched adidas Cycling as DTC exclusive (10x business growth)

Developed SEO, UX, Content and merchandising strategy for 10 sports categories (+32% growth YOY)

Read about adidas cycling

Senior Manager Concept-to-Consumer (Global)

adidas HQ, Germany

Apr 2018 - Nov 2019

Leading the go-to-market strategy and market management for adidas Rugby and Podium Sports

Led the Rugby World Cup 2019 All Blacks GTM strategy and delivered record breaking revenue for the brand

Fostered the collaboration and GTM planning between adidas Rugby BU and the Y-3 fashion brand for a first-of-a-kind collab for the All Blacks

GTM strategy and implementation for Tokyo Olympics 2020

Read about the launch

Key Account Manager - adidas Golf DTC (EMEA)

adidas Golf Europe, Basingstoke UK

Jan 2016 - Oct 2017

Established the DTC strategy for adidas golf and built an end-to-end process to drive growth for the category across ecommerce, retail and Factory Outlets

The role relied heavily on working with other teams and departments to prioritise ecommerce as the primary destination for adidas Golf in Europe and providing findings to global so that they could replicate the succes

200% ecommerce growth in 2 years

250% factory outlet growth in 2 years