Sports Marketing Surveys announces Robert Cobain as the company’s new Head of Audits in Europe.
Rob’s arrival further strengthens the company’s retail audit offering. The plan is to launch outdoor and running retail audits in Q3 2022, and SMS is also exploring opportunities for new cycling retail audits in Europe.
SMS has a long-established reputation as a specialist in providing robust retail audits to the sports industry. It operates the Bicycle Association Market Data Service in Great Britain, which tracks more than a million unique products at model level every month. It is also renowned for its running, tennis and surf & skate audits in the USA. The latter is operated under the company’s ActionWatch banner, which also offers an audit service in Australia.
The SMS team has already expanded in 2022. Rob’s arrival follows that of Aneesa Ali to the retail audit team in February and the return of Sarah Goward in January.
Richard Payne, Director of SMS, reflected: “Operating retail audits at the scale and precision that SMS does is not an easy task. It requires database and visualization expertise, an ironclad focus on data security, and a team that has the right resource and technical know-how to support ongoing reporting while always looking towards future improvements to the service. Rob’s background, both in data and analytics and as a service user within the sports industry, makes him uniquely placed to add value to the SMS team. This is an exciting appointment and confirmation of our intention to focus and invest in this area.
Rob commented: “I know SMS well from my time at Acushnet, where I and the rest of the team appreciated their integrity, rigorous analysis, and commitment to delivering actionable insight. I can’t wait to get started and help new industries reap the benefits of SMS’ services.”
A retail audit provides near real-time data on sales and stock at brand and model level within an industry. For more information, and to understand why retail audit data is essential, please visit our Retail Audit dedicated page.
