WHERE DISCOVERY
IS THE REWARD
THE DESTINATION IS THE JOURNEY
Unknown in the US, Palladium was a well-known maker of hybrid athletic shoes and boots in Europe. The brand appealed to advertising-adverse urban nomads who thought themselves too worldly for common brands. Our job was to build retail distribution, build brand awareness and generate sales - without the benefit of traditional advertising support.
How do you drive customers who love to travel into retail stores?
By giving them satellite coordinates. No, really. We turned a hot trend at the time - geocaching - into a game for shoe-lovers
Find The Cache, Play The Game.
We hid boxes (caches) around the country, each with a code players could enter online to win prizes, including shoes
Launched In 5 Key Markets
The game drove players into stores where the “cache” was part of the display. Launched in New York, Atlanta, San Fransisco, Portland and Seattle —every store cache attracted an average of 125 potential customers
Guerilla Tactics Gained A Cult Following
These included walking billboards (enlisting the homeless), screen printed nickels and missing shoes generated awareness and interest in the game. Pre-launch publicity had geocachers calling the game “Palcaching” which we adopted
Impossible To Ignore
Coins were strategically placed in each city that would be found by any passersby, instantly creating an intrigue that couldn't be ignored
The Cinderella Story...
What can you do with one shoe? Nothing. Which is why palcachers were so inclined to follow the clue and find its mate
Keep Them Coming Back
The Palcaching phenomenon continued to grow in popularity amongst adventure seekers and the website encouraged participants to dive deeper and find the next clue, capturing data
Once The Game Was Discovered
We let the press in on it. A look book resembling a passport was distributed to fashion editors. The brand got noticed and placed on Will Smith in "I Am Legend", causing a run on the brand
BrandWeek Liked The Idea
So much, they named it a “Top Ten Promotion of the year” alongside megabrands Audi and Burger King
