To set up these conversations and to understand the youth market in South Africa, Converse turned to Youth Dynamix, a leading youth consultancy in South Africa to help establish relevance for the cult brand.
With the largest youth knowledge bank in South Africa, Youth Dynamix designed a youth strategy for Converse with an interactive, experiential social campaign for Converse to celebrate 100 years of Converse authenticity.
The integrated campaign included elements of social media, campus brand ambassadors and a highly successful youth focused competition. The campaign centered around authenticity and encouraging the core brand evangelists with the means and the reasons to become even more vocal!
Campus Brand Ambassadors were selected to champion and evangelise the brand on a number of top campuses in South Africa. This included the Conversified Makeover as well as guerilla penetration into top high profile campus events. Converse Fashion Parties were the hottest ticket to see the very latest, international Converse fashion first in South Africa.
Brand Ambassadors were supported online by a community website as well as a Converse Blog. The aim was to provide a platform for like minded fans to talk to each other and Converse about their passion for the fashion brand! The support and social dialogue on the blog was impressive – a high number of registered users with constant interaction and dialogue on the website been driven by the public. The Facebook Page which acted as a initiator and director to the blog had over 15,000 fans. In terms of successful youth marketing, the motherlode had been achieved with the fans assimilating and absorbing the blog into their world – proving again that social dialogue is vital in communicating with this market.
Supporting the youth trend of personalization, Youth Dynamix launched Trace Your Lace, a competition calling for the design of a new Converse sneaker. Using a wide range of publications and with support from existing platforms including brand ambassadors and the blog, a sneaker template was disseminated for people to create their own design for a Converse sneaker.
The result was incredible.
Over 5,000 entries were received with the oldest entrant being 62 years old and the most entries from one person totaling 100 designs! Utilising the blog, Converse fans were invited to create the Top 10 designs with the final winners being chosen by the Converse Shoe Desginers. Winners received R25,000 or a new Apple Mac Air. Conversations on the winners continued after the end of the competition showing how successful dialogue can extend the life of a campaign even further!
Building on the dual universal drivers of youth, belonging and self expression, Youth Dynamix helped Converse reach their market in a meaningful way. The multi-platform marketing experience created number of positive and far reaching touchpoints, both virtually and physically. This ensured a legacy of the messaging long after the campaign ended – the best case scenario for any brand.