The Brief

‘ShoesShoesShoes’ is an established Malaysian high fashion label with boutiques in Kuala Lumpur, an exclusive selection of ladies’ shoes and a niche clientele of career women. In a fickle fashion scene, a retailer can easily lose its customers to another when something more exciting emerges. So there was a need for 'ShoesShoesShoes' to engage with its customers and attract new ones with more than just footwear.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Many career women in this urban centre have little time to look for love, but will always make time for one thing - shopping. So we created "Shoe Dating", a modern fairy tale where women would find their Prince Charming through the purchase of a pair of shoes. We teamed up with ‘Lunch Actually’, Asia’s premier match-making company, to find eligible bachelors and ‘Capital FM’ a woman-only radio station to publicise, created our own facebook page as the campaign’s interaction point and modified the store environment to physically bring the idea to life and engage shoppers.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The campaign went on to generate 30 times more talk value than forecasted. It made headlines in both local and international news with Forbes, the Huffington Post, BBC World, New York Times and Marie Claire featuring the story. It also sparked off heated conversations online and created demand from women across the continent to open a store near them. Over 80% of customers participated and successfully went for their dates. Many love stories are now in the making with some match-making still in progress.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Looking for Mr. Right is very much like shopping for shoes since it’s all about finding the perfect fit. So by combining two pursuits in one outing, women can have the best of both worlds – finding the shoes of their desire and potentially meeting the man of their dreams. A fairy tale that is now turned into a real brand experience for women. In store, matching the shoe styles to different types of man enabled the label to showcase its variety of designs. The discounts (paid by the men) that the women received for their next purchase also paved the way for repeat visits.