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Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) has welcomed new hire Aneesa Ali to its European team.
Ali joins SMS as an audit manager, where the company said her skills will be fundamental to helping expand SMS’ European retail audit offering into running and outdoor sports.
SMS already operates the Cycling Market Data Service on behalf of the Bicycle Association (BA). The programme now tracks more than a million individual product SKUs and accounts for an estimated 70% of all UK cycling-related sales.
The BA recently released its 2021 cycling impact report, ‘Is There Growth Beyond the Boom?’, driven by the latest Market Data Service numbers gathered from monthly retail sales data from tills across the country. It details how the UK cycling market soared to new heights during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the USA, SMS manages audits of running shoes and tennis racquets, as well as a full audit of surf and skate hard and soft goods under the company’s ActionWatch brand. Together with the existing SMS team, Ali will be responsible for the operation of new audits for the running and outdoor industry that are currently in the process of being launched. Working groups have been established for these programmes and initial onboarding of buyers and data providers is underway.
“I’m really excited by the opportunity at Sports Marketing Surveys,” said Ali. “Their research across multiple sports offers so many insights, and I can’t wait to work on enhancing existing programmes as well as helping the new running and outdoor retail audits make a real difference to buyers and data providers.”
Read more: Four more names added to Cycle Show line-up
Ali has acquired almost 10 years of experience in the data analytics sector, covering reporting, data mining, analysis, and visualisation. Recent experience includes working for Toyota, Samsung, and Blackhorse Trading. The appointment is SMS’ second in Europe in 2022, following the return of Sarah Goward in January.
