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Toms Shoes steps up mobile efforts with Microsoft

Toms Shoes, a footwear company that donates a pair of shoes to disadvantaged children for every pair bought through its Web site, is partnering with Microsoft Advertising for a multichannel campaign featuring mobile.

For the third year in a row on April 8, Toms Shoes is holding an event called One Day Without Shoes to raise awareness about how many people go without shoes and the associated debilitating foot disease that can ensue. Microsoft Advertising is donating its online, in-game and mobile advertising assets and expertise and JWT is providing the creative work.

?It is great that a company the size of Microsoft is not only taking note of the Toms One for One movement but also helping us achieve our goal to have thousands of people participate in One Day Without Shoes on April 8,? said Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe-giver of Toms Shoes, Santa Monica, CA.

?By leveraging their various properties ranging from video games to mobile to online media, we are hoping to spread awareness around the impact a pair of shoes can have in a child's life,? he said.

?Being able to connect with our supporters through their mobile devices takes our movement one step further, engaging them in our brand and allowing them to get involved through a different channel.?

Toms Shoes is an American footwear company that also operates a nonprofit subsidiary, Friends of Toms.

JWT, headquartered in New York, is one of the world's largest advertising and communications companies. It is a part of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group.

Microsoft Advertising is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. that leverages proprietary and third-party inventory across online, gaming and mobile channels.

If the shoe fits, go mobile
Mr. Mycoskie has made it his goal to double the amount of participants of this event, and to do so he came to Microsoft to help expand the campaign and reach an extensive audience through digital advertising, with mobile at the center of the cross-channel approach.

The campaign includes homepage takeovers, including Fox Sports and MSNBC, placements across Microsoft?s mobile and in-game properties, as well as strong viral and social media elements.

The mobile banner creative is running across the Microsoft Mobile network, which includes MSN Mobile, Windows Hotmail and Messenger Mobile, Verizon Wireless On-Deck, CNBC and Fox Sports, for the entirety of the campaign running through April 8.

On March 28, Toms Shoes will run a one-day homepage takeover on MSN Mobile.

?Microsoft Mobile Advertising is happy to be part of this effort,? said Charles Johnson, general manager of Microsoft Mobile Media, Redmond, WA. ?Reaching consumers across all three screens is the most impactful way to raise awareness around this deftly important issue.

?In mobile, we felt that driving users to register engages them to act while on the go and brings the idea of going a day without shoes to reality,? he said.