JUST ROO IT!
KangaROOS sneaker
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
Cheil Germany GmbH
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Cheil UK Logan Wilmont Chief Creative Officer Cheil Germany Roland Rudolf Creative Directors Cheil Germany Joern Welle, Thomas Schroeder Design Director Cheil Germany Daniel Gumbert Concept Developer Cheil Germany Fernanda Roedel Copywriter Cheil Germany Annika D’Ambrogio Art Director Cheil Germany Miriam Preissinger Copywriter Cheil Germany Thilo Mueller-Ohldach Creatives Cheil UK Rob Perham Simon Boniface Simon Friedberg Mark Fretten
Production Team
Head of UX Cheil UK Mark Woodward Senior Project Manager Cheil UK Anthony Evangelista Social Project Manager Cheil UK Hannah Moore Agency Producer Cheil Germany Moritz Gillrath Producer Cheil UK Nazneen Hosenie
Other Credits
CEO & President Cheil Germany Volker Selle COO Cheil UK Matt Pye Regional Head Cheil Germany Sung Chan Ra Senior Client Service Director Cheil Germany Dr. Yoo-Mi Choi Senior Account Manager Cheil UK Hazel Dwyer Head of Social Media Cheil Nordic Katharina Fahnl Social Media Account Manager Cheil Nordic Urban Johansson Creative Planner Cheil UK Tim Polder Project Manager Cheil Germany Georg Erb
Date
April 2014
Background
KangaROOS was founded in 1979 on the simple premise: that running should be fun. And to free runners from all distractions, KangaROOS created a little pouch for storing their keys.
35 years later, it rather seemed to KangaROOS that the joy and simplicity of running had been eroded by Nike technology with every step counted and every run digitised. The mission for KangaROOS' 35th anniversary was: put the fun back into run.
Idea
The idea was to poke fun at Nike's obsession with technology.
When KangaROOS reached out to their community, Matthias came up with an idea so great he was sent to Australia to just do it.
He attached a FuelBand to a real kangaroo and then ran with it.
His daily task was to report back how many fuelpoints the roo had scored. Any Facebook fan who guessed correctly won a pair of special 35th anniversary sneakers.
By adding Nike's own hashtags #Fuelband and #NikeFuel to all Matthias's posts, KangaROOS hijacked Nike's own Twitter feed, spreading the story.
Then KangaROOS launched the world's First 'Analogue Fitness Tracker', a sweatband with a pocket on the crowd- funding internet platform Indiegogo, where it stood out as a parody of every other digital tracking device.
By the way, the necessary funds to launch the 'Analogue Fitness Tracker' were swiftly raised and the product launched!
Results
Within a few weeks, the engagement rate on Facebook had grown by 400% and over 18,000 people had mentioned KangaROOS on Twitter.
In total, the small sneaker brand reached 8.1 million people.
The crowd-funding project gained 130,000 impressions within the Indiegogo network, achieving the funding goal of 10,000 Euro.
Altogether 3 million media impressions were gained.
More importantly, KangaROOS touched a basic human truth: sometimes technology doesn't make life more fun.
So ... just ROO it.
Our Thoughts
This idea is just very funny in itself. Man and kangaroo run across the outback together. It’s a branded idea with zest and joy for life at its very centre. I love it because the roo notched up so many thousands of fuel points, it ended up showing how meaningless points for running are. In fact, FuelBand pitted runner against runner and even runner against self in a mirthless competition. Whereas KangaROOS have reminded us that running is about looking around you as you run, at the landscape, at the views, at the other runners.
Maybe someone big and important in Portland saw the wisdom that lies within this idea. At any rate, only a few weeks after the campaign, Nike closed down the whole FuelBand operation.