Adidas-owned Rockport is trying to convince the metropolitan professional of its commitment to providing stylish and comfortable footwear via a 360-degree marketing push that spans advertising, public relations, in-store, digital and mobile.

The global marketing campaign for the Fall 2010 season breaks in more than 30 countries worldwide this week. The footwear specialist has partnered with NBC?s ?The Apprentice? for an integrated consumer marketing program.

"Rockport?s Hot Commute campaign was designed to reach our our target audience of metropolitan professionals," said Shari Fabiani, vice president of global marketing at Rockport, Canton, MA. "The strategy was to design a multichannel campaign in an effort to touch active, on-the-go modern professionals as they travel throughout their day.

"Starting when they first check the weather on their smartphone, to reading the news when they arrive at work, to searching the latest trends during their lunch break and watching an episode of their favorite TV show online before bed, Rockport will take them throughout their daily marathons," she said.

What?s Hot Commute?
The ?Hot Commute? campaign deals with challenges that metropolitan professionals face each day during their commute.

The campaign centers around the metropolitan professional's daily challenge: ?How can I look stylish throughout the course of my day??

One aspect of the campaign is a video of two attractive strangers as they commute to work, notice each other on the street, and eventually walk away together hand in hand.

Here is the video:
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The point is that the commute is typically the first and last social interaction of the day.

Rockport?s message is that consumers need stylish, comfortable footwear that prepares them for anything that happens throughout the work day, be it a last-minute corporate meeting or even a flirtatious encounter with someone on the bus or train on the way home.

Mobile
As part of the Hot Commute campaign, Rockport will begin advertising in key mobile applications and sites to appeal to the metropolitan commuter on his/her way to work.

Rockport has developed its own Hot Commute smartphone application, which showcases the cities and countries that have the ?Hottest Commuters.?

Users will be asked to upload images of themselves commuting to work to show how they combine style and comfort. The application will have interactive content as voters choose who has the hottest commuter style per town, city and country.

Additionally, Rockport will be promoted within the Vogue mobile application, with an entire section dedicated to the brand.

Consumers can view Rockport shoes via the Vogue application. If they choose to buy, they are rerouted to Rockport's site, which is not mobile-optimized as of yet.

This is a screen grab of the Rockport page where consumers can buy from. It is not mobile-optimized:

"Mobile suits metropolitan professionals perfectly," Ms. Fabiani said. "More and more metropolitan professionals are relying on their smartphones on a daily basis to keep them informed and on track through out their day.

"We have targeted our mobile advertising towards the health, fitness, fashion, style, news and entertainment cluster, topics that we know are of interest to our consumer demographic," she said.

Print
Rockport will aggressively target women for this campaign through advertising with Vogue and Lucky magazines, with ad buys in the September, October and November issues of Vogue, as well as the November issue of Lucky.

Key Rockport women?s footwear styles will undergo a blind shoe test with 100 Vogue ?Insiders,? a group of first adopters that test products before they hit shelves.

Digital
Rockport has developed a Hot Commute microsite at http://www.fall.rockport.com to showcase the online video and key footwear styles that are shown in the campaign.

Here is a screen grab of the new microsite:

Rockport will start digital advertising via banner ads in key online outlets such as The New York Times, Linkedin, People.com, Washington Post, Lifetime and USA Today.

Here is one of the banners:

Additionaly, Hot Commute online video ads will run on ABC, Fox, NBC, hulu, BBE and Tidal TV.

Rockport will be conducting its largest direct mail campaign with Zappos.com that will also include email blasts, online giveaways and a social media push.

In-store and out of home
The Hot Commute campaign will comprise of window and in-store displays that take cues from the Hot Commute campaign.

The Rockport brand messaging and imagery will all change to reflect the new Fall 2010 Collection and will be supported with extensive mall advertising in 14 malls across the United States

Rockport will host consumer events with Vogue and Lucky editors, to support sell-through of the new Fall collections.

Rockport will be activating its ?Apprentice? partnership with a broadcast and online media push with NBC affiliates nationwide and throughout the Apprentice season.

"We?re excited to utilize this new medium [mobile] to reach on-the-go metropolitan professionals around the globe and introduce them to our proposition of walkability," Ms. Fabiani said. "Our philosophy is about making style comfortable and allowing professionals to look good longer throughout their demanding day."

Final take
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Marketer
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