Converse, an American shoe company that has been making shoes since the early 20th century, recently implemented a below the line marketing campaign targeting young Latin Americans online.
Highlights:
– The campaign was designed to turn Converse’s country-specific websites into social networking destinations for the young and connected.
– Targeting 35-40 million young Latin American adults
– Allowing Fans to customize their shoes
This is how Converse, helped by its advertising agency, La Comunidad, implemented the campaign:
1) Objective of Campaign:
The goal of Converse PLAY was to create “cool content” for the Converse fans: simple and entertaining ideas to be delivered on the Internet that serve to “inspire creativity”. Miami based Advertising Agency “La Comunidad” developed 40 original pieces of content to be posted on the Converse sites in Latin America in a section of each site called PLAY2) Target. Converse wanted this section of the website to be a creative outlet for their fans, and for the creative content specifically not to be branded with the Converse logo. In other words, The campaign was designed to turn Converse’s country-specific websites into social networking destinations for the young and connected.
Total Universe of 35-40 million young Latin American adults in the focus region, which includes Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Panama/Columbia/Venezuela with secondary emphasis on the Andean (Chile, Peru, Ecuador) and Caribbean (Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) countries.
3) Creative
Realizing that fans of Converse shoes are very individualistic and have artistic sensibilities, the brand has a number of ways to cultivate that in its fans—allowing them to customize their shoes and incorporating fun content for fans to explore when they are on the Converse site. So involving La Comunidad with its deep roots in the art and creative communities, each video or interactive piece (:30 to :90) needed to be relevant to a fan of Converse to inspire within them optimistic rebellion and individualistic creativity. Instead of just passively watching a piece of media, the viewer would be inspired to go create something on their own.
In addition to the videos created by La Comunidad, the agency also reached out to the independent artist community and had these artists submit their own interesting and compelling :30 to :90 pieces of their own design, which added considerably to the diversity of thought and inspiration communicated through the project.
4) Below the Line Marketing Tools
There was no media bought to promote the project. This was an entirely new take on “marketing” to the younger crowd that lives its life in the digital screen. With the rise of YouTube, video has become an important means of communication for a certain generation. Separate from traditional consumer outreach, Converse sought to make deeper connections with the fans of the brand, making their website a destination for their target young and connected audience.
When watching the videos, viewers are not just entertained—they are inspired to go out and round up their friends and pass along their own creative good vibes to the world. The idea is what matters, not the packaging. At the end, success is having something entertaining enough that inspires someone to share something of their own.
5) Response Rates
No data at this time, Converse will be able to collect information at the end of the campaign to compare click-throughs of the different videos and, hopefully, share it.
