Geox founder Mario Polegato was an Italian wine maker. One day on a hot day he stepped out to desert heat to find his feet suffered from the temperature. Mario took out a Swiss army knife and cut holes in both of his shoes.
The breathable sole was created, however, not shoe companies would accept the product stating that you ‘could never sell a shoe with holes in’. Now Geox is a billion Euro a year business selling shoes with waterproof ‘breathable’ soles and the membrane in the sole is now invested in the rest of the shoe so that the entire shoe is waterproof and breathable.
Due to rapid success Geox didn’t invest in digital but 2 years ago decided to put digital at the centre of it’s strategy and integrate digital to the heart of the company.
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The Brief
Geox is also a brand for selling in the summer keeping feet cool so the brief was to create a new product to increase sales in the winter months – also the perception that a show with holes can be waterproof.
How do you do that? You need to get all the proof and show what lies in the product to make it totally waterproof and totally breathable – light enough to be entertaining and technological enough to be interesting and signed off by the tech teams.
What did they do?
How did Geox attempt to prove products were waterproof? They went to the wettest place on place on earth – Cherrapunjee where it rains 11.7 meters of rain a year. The idea was to test the shoes in extreme conditions.
There were 4 separate tests in varying conditions in and around Cherrapunjee.
To make the project feasible & tangible, Geox set up a store.
So what next for Geox?
Geox needed an urban test – so they went to Barcelona where there is no rain and created an artificial social (viral) environment – ‘7 Days of Rain‘
The campaign doesn’t only prove the technical features of the Amphibiox it also shows the different styles of the collection and how they are perfect for different every day use in a very specific way.
The Result?
Double traffic, triple average visitor – increased time spent with brand x5
