An innovation tripartite partnership between sportswear behemoth Adidas, youth retailer Citadium and Air France sees the airline use cool trainers and the trendy streetwear shop to lure grown kids home to visit their parents (and join its HOP! youth loyalty scheme) through a promo called ‘Run Home To Mum’.
Air France’s regional Hop! sub-brand youth loyalty pass is promoting a programme of discounts to travellers aged between 12 and 24 by incentivising parents to buy a pair of new 2017 Adidas EQT Support ADV sneakers for their kids who live in a different city (an airline youth card, normally riced at €49, is included for free in the shoebox).
The twist is that HOP! is only sending one shoe to the youngster and to reclaim the other shoe to make the pair the new youth loyalty scheme member needs to use their new card to get a discount on a flight home to visit their folks.
Parents can also buy the Adidas shoes, which retail at €119.95, on the bespoke ‘Run to Mum’ microsite (https://www.runtomum.com/) until 7 February and the promotion will see HOP! give away 300 youth passes.
The campaign, developed in harness with creative agency Les Gaulois, is running in-store via an installation at Citadium’s store in Caumartin (Paris) from 26 to 28 January
Mais que se passe t-il chez @citadium ? #RunToMum #EnModeAvion pic.twitter.com/v9s3SnHVRE
— hopinfos (@hopinfos) January 26, 2017
It is also being amplified through an online video, which pulls on the parental heartstrings with themes of empty nesting, on the airline’s YouTube channel,
its Twitter feed,
➡ https://t.co/w8sH6qO9SV pic.twitter.com/bvsSTG5p23
— hopinfos (@hopinfos) January 26, 2017
On pose un premier indice ici Vous avez une piste ? #RunToMum #EnModeAvion pic.twitter.com/Ti946ErBpK
— hopinfos (@hopinfos) January 26, 2017
and its Facebook page.
With further social support from the retail partner, sports brand and agency.
Plus, young Adidas consumers can go online to the Run For Mum microsite (https://www.runtomum.com/) and leave hints to their parents about which trainers they’d prefer by simply emailing them or sharing the details with the Facebook message ‘Mum, I miss you. Make me run home.’
Activative Comment:
For Adidas, this is just one local market, tactical initiative that tie-ins with its current global relaunch campaign for its EQT line (see case study).
It also shows that traditional sportswear brands like Adidas aren’t just experimenting with sports property and/or sports star partnerships, or even music and cultural tie-ins to engage their target demographics.
The idea is bringing older generations/parents into the marketing mix with this kind of generationally linked incentivisation is particularly interesting.
It’s an example of the weaponsiation of influencers trend – but one which takes the unusual step of switching the more usual influencer age group.
By linking the powerful motivators of ‘guilt’ (about not seeing one’s parents often enough) and ‘desire’ (in this case a trendy new shoe range) the initiative aims to drive engagements at both ends.
Well timed to coincide with the post-Christmas holiday blues period, it might help make the next visit home come a little earlier than it may otherwise be.
Innovative, unusual, fun and well incentivised this clever partnership may well only have 300 passes to offer, but it will also generate some youthful buzz and PR amongst parents.
Hard to believe we live in a world now where prices have changed so much that trainers can be more expensive than airline tickets.
Links:
Air France
http://www.hop.com/
https://twitter.com/hopinfos
https://www.facebook.com/hop.fr/
Adidas
Citadium
Les Gaulois
