Snkrfrkr Tokyo - Promo Campaign

Ain't nothing like freaking kids who love freaking sneakers! That's why we rustled up a crack Tokyo team to spread the good Sneaker Freaker word around the world's craziest sneaker city. We put the challenge in the good hands of Chris G and his team at Ogilvy Tokyo to see how far and wide they could promote the Sneaker Freaker brand – and boy did they pop the cork with this crazy campaign. Welcome to the Sneaker Stalker!

The team's idea was to jack a popular area of Tokyo, a place with so much hustle and bustle they would guarantee a huge audience. And what better place than Harajuku's adidas flagship store? With this retail location in mind, the team came up with a catchy ‘Sneaker Stalker’ concept and to leverage maximum exposure, executed their plan on one of the busiest holiday weeks.

Using an escalator as the main mechanic to deliver their message, the team photographed a series of local sneakerheads at Amana studios inside a grey, rectangular box. The images were then printed on a special material and applied to adhesive panels that slotted into the grooves of the escalator steps facing outwards. As the escalator steps rise up automatically, so did the 'stalkers', giving the illusion that these strangers were peeping the heat on your feet! Once you stepped off the escalator you landed onto a Sneaker Freaker floor graphic for added promotional punch. Here the crowd could check out a copy of Sneaker Freaker and get up close and personal with the mag itself.

The response to the campaign was massive with thousands of travelers becoming unsuspecting YouTube stars. Ogilvy estimated to have stalked around 100,000 feet over the five-day period – not bad for an idea produced on a shoestring budget with maximum effect! Viva La Stalker!

Thanks to the team - Chris G, Kosuke, Ono, Obata and all the crew at Amana