Case Studies
Vegan “Atonement Kicks”
Toms Shoes
www.HeartAndSole.net
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» Budget Level
Four figures
» The Challenge
Toms wanted to expand its “buy one, give one” charitable message to a Jewish marketplace for the High Holidays. Toms donates a pair of shoes to people in need for every pair it sells, one for one. Toms’ vegan product line contains no animal products, which meets the cultural norm of wearing new non-leather shoes during the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement. Under the direction of Buzztone Marketing, they partnered on this campaign with the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.
ACE was asked to communicate the program to Toms’ core demographic of young adults aged 15 to 25, both those affiliated and non-affiliated with the Jewish community. The timeline was very short — under a week — as ACE was taking over from another producer who was released from the job. [IMAGES]
» Our Solution
ACE created a standalone comics page that dramatized the One For One message of the brand and tied it into the theme of the Jewish holiday. ACE worked to achieve a light, humorous, and unassuming tone in the creative, and we were solicitous of client feedback, to maintain authenticity with the target audience (e.g. Yom Kippur shoes became, in a creative adaptation of current slang, “Atonement kicks”). The comic “lived” on a microsite that ACE completely redesigned and which linked to the Toms main site. The comic was also available as a printable PDF for local groups to download, print, and share within their communities. Printed versions of the comic were also available to be distributed to targeted retailers and via the Seminary.
» The Results
Awareness increased in a short time, and many lines of shoes were sold out.
[The TOMS comic] looks FANTASTIC!
Liz Heller
President, Buzztone Marketing