From April to June, luxury shoe vendor Jimmy Choo leapt into tennis-shoe production and social media with a splash: It dreamed up CatchaChoo, a "trainer hunt" that united the real and digital worlds on a quest to capture free sneakers.

Inhabitants of London were invited to follow CatchaChoo on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. There, an anonymous Jimmy Choo representative released hints about her activities—and occasionally "checked in" at a public London venue.

The objective: to race over and find the representative, who'd be carrying a pair of shoes. The first to approach her and say "I've been following you" received a pair of Jimmy Choo trainers!

For the Jimmy Choo brand, Catchachoo accomplished the following:

• It piqued activity on the part of select digital users interested in the brand, and rewarded them—with not just free shoes, but interaction with a personality that was both friendly and respectful. (The Twitter page reveals @CatchaChoo responded to questions, shared pictures and sometimes even just said "thank you" for a compliment.)
• It demonstrated that Jimmy Choo was not only daring and new but also engaging—a quality crucial to developing long-term social-media relationships—thus paving the way for future experiments.
• It was product-relevant: How better to promote new sneaks than to get people on their feet, questing through the streets for them?

→ end article preview
Read the Full Article