Cons Skateboarding was looking to introduce an innovative midsole technology called CLS (Comfort, Lightweight, Stability) that combined the comfort of a cup sole with the board feel of a vulcanized product.

CLS directly addressed a skateboarder’s desire to maintain board-feel (a big reason why skaters come to Converse), while providing adaptive cushioning and stability accomplished with more technical skate shoes.

 
 

Board-feel
of a vulc.
Comfort of
a cup sole.

 

The goal was to establish CLS as a product platform with functionality that transcended the model it premiered with. We created a dual-pronged strategy of content and marketing tools. First, we spoke to the heart of the core skater, showcasing Jake Johnson. Secondly, we tapped friend of the brand Frank Gerwer to help articulate the innovative technical features and benefits.

 

Digital Advertising

15-Second Pre-rolls

The CLS campaign was a two-pronged approach of traditional skate team footage and explanatory videos.

Cons friend, Frank Gerwer helped us take it back-to-the-lab to help explain the technical “magic” behind the CLS midsole.

Anyone who has ever streamed video on a site like Hulu knows… campaigns may be fun but are often so super-targeted that the preferred audience actually gets burnt out watching the same content repeat ad nauseam. This campaign gave us ample opportunity for little easter eggs of comic outtakes and alternative edits.

 
 

Behavioral
Psychology,
Retail and
Consumer
Journeys

Geeky Insight:
The work of Nobel winning economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler tells us that people make up their minds far in advance of their consumer decisions.

The three bullet points that often accompany a product are great for validating the opinions that our emotional response already proclaimed. But they are often less convincing than we hope when we write our creative briefs.

We use this knowledge of behavioral psychology in almost everything we do, but particularly while pacing messaging throughout the consumer journey, pushing large emotional aspects of the story at earlier impressions, and ramping up features and benefits closer to the purchasing decision.