Recently, Twitter was ablaze with India’s fashion-conscious youth posting Shoefies of themselves in new and unexplored parts of their cities. adidas and Wunderman watched from the sidelines as #StanSmith, #Shoefie and #COURTRIP trended more than 10 times on Twitter.
The two-week campaign kicked off on Twitter and Instagram just after the Friendship Day weekend. Within hours of the launch, it had begun to trend across the nation on Twitter. Over the next fortnight, more than 5,000 Shoefies were snapped, over 25,000 conversations were had, and campaign hashtags and keywords trended more than 10 times. All of this, on a shoestring budget.
As Indrajeet Bose, executive creative director, Wunderman International India, explained, adidas wanted to leverage its global communication “for every court” and create ripples amongst young trendsetters in urban India. Wunderman tackled a tricky brief with a simple approach — “talk to the youth in their own domain and let them speak in their own style.” Audiences on Twitter and Instagram were asked to explore the nooks and crannies of their cities through a unique road trip, or COURTRIP. Tweeps were encouraged to visit places that awe and inspire them and document their travel tales using the #Shoefie hashtag. And if their #Shoefie was the most unique, they won a coveted pair of the iconic Stan Smith shoes.
“The beauty of the idea lay in the fact that the target group were motivated to make a small change in their existing behaviour of shooting and sharing selfies endlessly. Tied to the themes of exploring and breaking out, Shoefie introduced Indian audiences to a street culture where sneaker heads literally let their shoes speak for themselves,” added Bose.
To launch the campaign, Wunderman International India created a dedicated Tumblr page, where the entire collection of Shoefies generated in the country were archived.
“These shoes are an icon of street culture; we wanted an idea that unfolds on the streets and is talked about online. In #COURTRIP and #Shoefie, we managed that seamlessly,” said Deepika Deepti, BU Head, Sport Style, adidas India.
“COURTRIP is a simple idea with an even simpler execution,” said Alpna Manchanda, ECD at Wunderman International India, “but it resonates with the restless audience who are itching to prove that they are going places.”