MarketingSherpa Summary:
This luxury shoe retailer looked for the cutting edge in social media promotion and walked right over it. Wanting to combine offline and online promotion, the team ran a treasure hunt in London to promote its new line of shoes. Hints about the prizes' locations were sent via social networks. Contestants ran all over town, and the buzz ran all over the web.

Agency: FreshNetworks
Client/company: Jimmy Choo
Campaign launch date: April 19, 2010
Target audience/demographic: Jimmy Choo customers and high-end fashion advocates

Goal:
Jimmy Choo, a global luxury shoe and accessories brand, wanted to use social media to help launch a new trainer (sneaker) collection in May 2010.

Jimmy Choo’s key aims were to:

o Generate significant online buzz/coverage about the new trainers
o Increase offline press coverage about the new trainers
o Increase sales of the new trainers
o Position Jimmy Choo as innovators in social media
o Increase positive online sentiment about the Jimmy Choo brand as a whole

We wanted to engage with Jimmy Choo customers, advocates and aspirational purchasers. We also wanted to interact with people who were interested in fashion and luxury goods in order to spread the world about the campaign.

Also, as we had already helped Jimmy Choo develop its Twitter and Facebook following, we wanted to engage with existing followers of Jimmy Choo on Facebook and Twitter.

Campaign Description:
As Jimmy Choo products are purchased both in-store and on the company's ecommerce site, we identified the need to engage customers both offline and online simultaneously. We achieved this by using a location-based social media tool to organize a real-time treasure hunt around London, using a pair of Jimmy Choo trainers as a prize.

The trainers checked in at fashionable hangouts around the city and sent out real-time updates about their whereabouts, via the social tool. Whoever reached the venue in time to catch the shoes would win a pair in their size.

To enable people to track and follow the trainers we set up profiles, under the name of “catchachoo,” on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. It’s our unique use of location-based social media tools that’s helped position Jimmy Choo as an innovator.

In fact, planning the treasure hunt took time and effort as we wanted to ensure the venues aligned with Jimmy Choo’s brand values as a whole. So we only checked in at places that real Jimmy Choo advocates would visit in order to further build on the brand’s upscale reputation.

The hunt lasted for almost three weeks until the trainers were finally caught by a lucky winner in Covent Garden. With only one winner, Jimmy Choo is hosting an in-store event for the rest of the “catchachoo” followers to further deepen the bond they have formed with the brand.

Channels Used:
Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, bloggers (via outreach) which, in turn, captured the attention of traditional offline print media.

Measurement Tactics:
We decided to measure the success of the campaign in the following ways:

o Number of online mentions about the trainer hunt
o Amount of interaction with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare
o Amount of offline press coverage about the trainer hunt
o Sales increase as a direct result of the campaign

We also conducted sentiment analysis with social media monitoring tools. We assessed Jimmy Choo’s presence online and analyzed what was being said about the launch of the new trainers prior to the launch of the campaign, during the campaign and after the campaign. This helped us measure the campaign's impact on public opinion.

How the Audience Helped Spread the Message:
Social sharing, blog and press mentions played a huge part in disseminating -- see results below for more detailed information. The campaign was shared on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

Key blog mentions include:

o Mashable.com
o Fashionably marketing
o Luxury social media
o PSFK

Press mentions include:

o Marketing
o The Evening Standard
o PR Week

Results:

- 4,000 individuals participated in the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook in just under three weeks.

- The competition details were viewed on Facebook 285,000 times.

- The campaign was mentioned more than 4,000 times on Twitter.

- 1 in 17 of all users of Foursquare in London were following the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt online.

- 250 different blogs covered the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt.

- The hunt was covered by Reuters, The Evening Standard, PR Week, Marketing magazine, Vogue, The Irish Daily Mail and Brand Republic to name but a few press and magazine titles.

- The Jimmy Choo trainer hunt was the most clicked on story on PR Week's news site and the second-most clicked on story on Marketing's news area during the week the story was published.

- Daily trainer sales in-store went up 33% after The Evening Standard covered the hunt.

- By using Foursquare in this way, FreshNetworks helped position Jimmy Choo as an innovator in the field of social media, as Foursquare had only been used to check-in people and not objects up to this point.

- Influential social media blog Mashable covered the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt because of the unique use of Foursquare and the fact that a luxury brand had engaged whole heartedly with social media.

- Positive mentions of the Jimmy Choo brand increased by almost 40% as a result of the campaign (measurements taken between 19th April – 6th May).

How Results Changed Over Time:
As the competition gained more online and offline coverage more and more people started following the campaign online.

Biggest Lesson: 
If we could do something differently, we'd try to find a way to measure any increased footfall into the Jimmy Choo stores as a direct result of the campaign. We'd also try to organize more consolation prizes for people who missed catching the choos at a venue. This time around secondary prizes included free Harvey Nichols wine in the Oxo Tower Bar & Brasserie upon the mention of “Jimmy Choo” and also a discount at luxury cake store Bees of Bloomsbury. If we were to do this again, we would negotiate more offers and discounts for participants.