Fall 2020


09


attention of our 900,000 Instagram followers. To solve that, we put some strong teasing imagery right at the start of the video in order to keep people from swiping right past the post. When we were able to get back into our building on a part-time basis, the video shoot took place in one day. Except for some messaging that needed to be tweaked and a few stock-image choices, we left the creative aspects of the video up to our content manager and his videographer, who did a fantastic job. From there, we rushed to create an SRT file of the English subtitles, then got translations in a number of languages so it would play with the correct subtitles on YouTube depending on where people were. As always, the version for Instagram had subtitles hard coded into the video because not many people watch videos with the sound on.


THE LAUNCH As planned, we unveiled the shoe on our social channels on Thursday (never on a Friday!), September 3, at 4:00 p.m. in Europe so the populace of the eastern United States would also see it at 10:00 a.m. EST. We used the video asset and the great product imagery in Instagram posts, in Instagram Stories, and on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We also published it on our internal intranet platform so that employees would share it across their own channels. They were proud to share a sustainability story, and that had a huge effect on our reach, especially on LinkedIn. Perhaps our greatest asset is the


community of sponsored athletes and ambassadors we have across our various sports disciplines. We have not only professional trail (mountain) runners—who would obviously be sharing with their running followers—but also professional freeskiers, World Cup alpine and cross-country ski racers, and a stable of outdoor ambassadors. All of them are passionate about the environment, so when we made the video and photo assets available via a shared drive, they shared them right on cue on their own social media channels. Collectively, their network of followers is several million people.


To take advantage of all this attention,


we had also worked with our digital marketing team to connect with our community who is not on social media. First, we asked them to send an email about the shoe to our database. The email’s call to action linked to a page on our website where people could enter their email addresses to be notified when the shoe is available this coming spring. I can’t share any exact numbers, but I was surprised how many people registered, and this passionate group will be the first ones we notify when the shoe is available for purchase. Once they registered, we directed them to a blog post, which went into more detail about the development process of the Index.01 and was translated into six languages so that people in our biggest markets


Replying quickly on social media leaves such a positive feeling with the community and shows transparency on behalf of the brand.


would see it in their native languages. That is crucial for SEO purposes, too. We also shared the video and photo assets, as well as the blog post, with our retail team so that the employees in our brand stores would be able to answer questions from consumers who had seen the shoe online.


Because the PR agencies we use across


the world have close relationships with media in our industry, they had delivered the translated press release and photo assets to their most trusted sources in advance of the embargo date, which meant their stories were ready to be published that very day. In the days immediately following, we received the big media splash we had hoped for. Journalists who cover outdoor


sports, running, and skiing all published stories, as did our industry trade media. But we also had coverage from environmental publications and blogs, as well as mainstream magazines, newspapers, and websites. The most exciting stories were on FastCompany.com and Forbes.com. In addition to having a huge reach, they also have readers outside the scope of our normal audience, exposing the brand to new people. In total, we had more than 100 stories written specifically about the Index.01 running shoe, and they are still coming. On social media, it was one of our


most engaging stories ever, with loads of comments on every post we made, nearly all of them positive. The day after unveiling the shoe, we reserved time with our product and sustainability experts to respond to interview requests and to answer questions from our social media followers (even the negative ones). Replying quickly on social media leaves such a positive feeling with the community and shows transparency on behalf of the brand. The Index.01 will hit the market in the


spring of next year, so there is plenty left to do to continue the conversation until then. That’s the challenge of unveiling a product so early. The middle of a global pandemic wasn’t the easiest time to plan a product unveiling— without a product to sell, no less—but it sure was fun, and it made lockdown go by more quickly. One of the best parts of working in a modern global communications role is that my job touches so many parts of the organization. In fact, the collaborative nature of revealing the Index.01 running shoe was the best part of the experience, and success is a lot more enjoyable when it is shared. Our footwear product team, our sustainability experts, the digital team, marketing managers in our local markets, PR agencies around the world, and even our friends in the media who supported us by telling this story to their audience—everyone played a role, many with kids running around the house behind them during online meetings. It will be extra gratifying to go for a run in my recyclable running shoes when I get my hands on a pair this spring. 


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