WORLD'S LONGEST CATWALK

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleWORLD'S LONGEST CATWALK
BrandECCO
Product / ServiceECCO SHOES
CategoryB02. Consumer Products
EntrantUM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency UM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company UM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency 2 UM Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
David Gray Um Australia Communications Strategist
Gemma NiMaoltuile Ensemble

Results and Effectiveness

ECCO broke the record for the world’s longest catwalk at 2.812km. ECCO stamped its mark on the fashion landscape – the PR coverage alone generated a 263% return on investment. Thanks to the World’s Longest Catwalk all objectives were smashed: 1) 35% of women now think ECCO shoes are stylish – up from 9%. 2) The volume of online conversations increased by 117%. Positive sentiment tracked within conversations increased by 8%. 3) ECCO sales rose by 16% year-on-year. Faced with undeniable proof from their peers and influencers, women finally believe ECCO shoes are both comfortable and stylish.

Creative Execution

ECCO focused all its efforts on the activation. The catwalk was the content story from which all creative executions and conversations stemmed. A 2.812km catwalk was set up in Sydney’s Darling Harbour to allow women to experience the comfort and style of ECCO shoes first hand. Real Australian women were recruited through social media to be models for the day. They were accompanied on the catwalk by key influencers such as bloggers, stylists and fashion writers. All were invited to walk and talk. They let their friends, followers and clients know that comfort and style can coexist – in the form of ECCO shoes. The activation was amplified to a broader audience through magazine and online executions as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds. Content seeding was integrated with a PR strategy to secure an exclusive 4-minute segment on Australia’s top-rating morning TV show and national media coverage.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

ECCO is proud of its unique offering: shoes that are both comfortable and stylish. Too good to be true? Australian women believed so. They thought ECCO shoes were comfortable but only 9% saw them as stylish. Our idea needed to: 1) Increase the style perception of ECCO to 15%. 2) Turn women into ECCO advocates. 3) Drive a 10% increase in sales. But women simply didn’t believe it was possible for a shoe to be both comfortable and stylish. They were also tired of claims made by ‘experts’ that didn’t translate in the real world. Insight: Women need to see their peers put ECCO shoes to the test before believing style and comfort can co-exist. So we used real women to prove the ECCO difference once and for all. Idea: The World’s Longest Catwalk. The ultimate expression of style, on a runway so long no-one could fake comfort.