This ad epitomizes all that is right with advertising to me and it is the visual stamp on a multi-prong campaign that solidified Vibram’s place in the uber competitive footwear market. This story is so great it doesn’t really need my commentary, but I believe genius like this needs to be shared.
Here’s the quick summary of the background:
- Vibram makes Five Fingers shoes… the first of their kind.
- The people rejoice – the competition gets annoyed
- Several people completely rip them off and flood the market with counterfeits
- Anxious consumers enticed by sweet prices by crappy rip offs
- The people stop rejoicing and send a big WTF to Vibram
- Vibram calls a WTF meeting and quickly identify the culprit and what to do
- They then simultaneously tell the customers how to be on the look out for crap shoes, take all legal actions available to stop the flood, take care of the disenfranchised customers that they had no obligation to satisfy, and of course produce a stunningly concise ad.
- The plan solidifies the consumer base, establishes the brand and might just have saved the company
- The people rejoice
ROBJDAY 