Converse
Making Your Mistakes Look Good:
The Pitch:
A campaign focused on everyday pains and small mistakes that would usually be embarrassing; however, the shoe continues to carry style despite the unfortunate circumstances of this short ad series. Mistakes never looked so good. Embarrassment looks coolest with Converse.
Short Form Ads/Posters:
Gum: A long strand of gum is stuck to the bottom of the shoe with the slogan “Making your mistakes look good”. It can be written on the shoe or as visual text.
Ice Cream: The ice cream scoop dramatically falls from the cone, landing just next to the shoe, and once again the text appears. The camera begins focused on the scoop and tracks it throughout the fall until it lands before panning to focus purely on the shoe.
The Train: The shoe gets caught in the train door as someone attempts not to miss the departing train, but hastily has to pull their foot out, leaving us with the shot of the shoe standing on the yellow line and the slogan.
Trips on Laces: Could be a snapshot image of someone falling forward as they trip on their laces or a very brief ad.
Puddle: A poster with a close-up shot of the shoe in the puddle.
Guerilla Marketing:
Strategically place a converse shoe in high footfall areas. i.e., Tottenham Court Road. Place the shoe in various kinds of predicaments. Left abandoned in a train station elevator, one on the very edge of the train station platform (considerably past the yellow line), one dangling precariously from a famous statue (or even with the statue wearing the shoe), at the bus stop as though someone sat down and forgot their shoe, outside Buckingham Palace, on a little floating raft in the middle of Hampstead Heath Ponds. Ensure the shoe is secure and cannot be removed. Only place one shoe in one place to cultivate intrigue. Who keeps losing their shoes? On the side of the shoe or scrawled next to it, it should say “Making your Mistakes Look Good”. It should feel like people keep forgetting their shoes, yet the shoes still look effortlessly cool. On the front of the tongue of the shoe, there’d be a QR Code that takes you to a mysterious website designed to suit the campaign. Begin a bit of hype by getting people to post about it on TikTok: “Someone had a rough night last night XD” with a good “#”.
Longer Form Ad Example:
The ad starts with a close-up on a young adult (21 years old) staring enviously. His eyes are almost twitching out of jealousy, his jaw is clenched, and his eyebrows are furrowed. The camera swings in a smooth, fluid motion to look at the shoes of the person sitting opposite him on a train on the London Underground. The camera smoothly pans to the shoes. Music (One Step Beyond by Madness begins to play), the camera is now locked onto the shoes, with the shoes being the centre of the shot. The person with the shoes (and the super cool outfit) gets off the train, and the camera tracks the shoes up the escalator as the song continues to play. The person is tapping their feet to the rhythm of the song. The person goes to tap out of barriers at the top of the station. However, they walk straight into barriers, the music scratches to a halt and the beeping of a declined Oyster card can be heard (yet still the camera is purely focused on the shoes). There is a pause of deafening silence as the person stands there awkwardly. The camera then aggressively spins, panning up to the insufficient balance. The Music slams back in as the person wearing the shoes walks to a card machine to top up their card (their walk should be purposeful, like a model strutting down a runway). The person stops walking, and the camera pans up to the back of the person before stopping. The person is the centre of the camera, and written almost graffiti-like onto the back of the t-shirt. It reads “making your mistakes look good: CONVERSE”.