Walk on Buy

If you want people to buy more shoes, get them to walk more.

That's the idea behind a new point-of-sale poster campaign launched last month by Consolidated Shoes' Palladium brand. The “Get Your Ramble On” posters, which customers can download from palladiumshoes.com, feature maps and slogans like “See Praha [Prague] Like Kafka — Walk it.”

The goal of the campaign — besides selling shoes — is to bring the brand to life and drive people to Palladium's Web site, says Consolidated's director of marketing Amy Gallagher.

The brand's target audience ranges from age 20 to 50. “But we don't focus so much on demographics as psychographics,” Gallagher says.

“The people who like the shoes consider themselves urban nomads who like to discover things for themselves,” says Dwayne Fry, account director at The Republik, Consolidated's agency. “They either like to travel or aspire to travel. We're trying to feed that desire of discovery.”

When visitors get to the site they're encouraged to sign up for an e-mail newsletter. Folks who receive the “Daytripper Dispatch” are encouraged (or as Palladium says very plainly, “bribed”) to ask friends to sign up. If they successfully get 10 to join, they receive a $100 credit. So far, 10% of participants have done so.

“It's very viral and our customers thrive on things like this. They like feeling they're part of an exclusive community,” Gallagher says. “It's almost as if our database is our marketing team.”