Twitter was ablaze recently with India’s fashion-conscious youth deciding to forego the usual narcissistic selfie in favour of an altogether more dignified and original “Shoefie,” as part of a new campaign in the region that kicked off (chortle) over the country’s Friendship Day weekend. The mandate for the campaign asked Adidas fans to take pictures of themselves wearing the brand’s trainers in unexplored parts of their cities, which has led to some surprisingly fascinating snaps!
India’s fashion-conscious youth recently decided to forego the usual narcissistic selfie in favour of an altogether more dignified and original Shoefie
The campaign was observed from the side lines by Adidas and creative agency Wunderman, as the #Shoefie, #COURTRIP and #StanSmith hash tags began to trend on Twitter. The final hash tag refers to the iconic tennis player, who endorsed his own range of Adidas shoes between the 1960s and the 1980s. Within hours of the campaign launch, it had begun to trend across the nation on Twitter, and over the next fortnight, more than 5,000 Shoefies were snapped, over 25,000 conversations were had, and campaign hashtags and keywords trended more than 10 times. All of this, on an aptly shoestring budget.
Who is Stan Smith?
Audiences on Twitter and Instagram were asked to explore the nooks and crannies of their cities through a road trip, or “COURTRIP,” and were encouraged to visit places that awe and inspire them, documenting their travel tales using the #Shoefie hashtag. If their #Shoefie was the most unique, they won a coveted pair of iconic Stan Smith shoes. To launch the campaign, Wunderman International India created a dedicated Tumblr page where the entire collection of Shoefies generated in the country were archived.
The campaign was observed from the side lines by Adidas and creative agency Wunderman, as the #Shoefie, #COURTRIP and #StanSmith hash tags began to trend on Twitter
Indrajeet Bose, executive creative director at Wunderman International India, explained that Adidas wanted to leverage its global “For every court” communication and create ripples amongst young trendsetters in urban India. Wunderman tackled a tricky brief with the simple approach of talking to the youth in their own domain and letting them speak in their own style. He said: “The beauty of the idea lay in the fact that the target group were motivated to make a small change in their existing behaviour of shooting and sharing selfies endlessly. Tied to the themes of exploring and breaking out, Shoefie introduced Indian audiences to a street culture where sneaker heads literally let their shoes speak for themselves.” Wunderman India ECD Alpna Manchanda added: “COURTRIP is a simple idea with an even simpler execution, but it resonates with the restless audience who are itching to prove that they are going places.”
