For the last five decades, the Porsche 911 Turbo has been known for its iconic design, speed and uncompromising performance. Despite its exsisting, loyal fanbase, the brand wanted to expand and reach a younger audience. To make the brand relevant to this new audience, Porsche partnered with another iconic German-owned and global sports brand, PUMA. The brands teamed up to honor the sports car in an entirely new way that would build excitement among the target audience.
Together, Porsche and PUMA created a limited-edition collection of shoes celebrating each generation of the 911 Turbo. Iconic design elements from the 911 Turbo, such as period-specific paint colors, rear wings, light bars, interiors and body lines, were all used as inspiration to create shoes as special as the car itself.
The two main objectives for this collaboration:
- Drive Sales: Sell 2,000 pairs of sneakers within the first 48 hours
- Generate Buzz: Garner 25 million impressions among the target audience
Strategy:
More than 40% of Porsche’s target audience appreciates fashion and sees value in maintaining their individual style when deciding on clothes and shoes to purchase. They are the go-to for fashion advice and are always in the know for the latest trends. Knowing this, C-K wanted to tap into their passion for style and ignite it through this partnership in an engaging and meaningful way.
Implementation:
C-K developed a launch plan in a phased approach to garner excitement around the Porsche X PUMA partnership. Throughout each of the phases, C-K collaborated with key media partners, leveraged social media and influencers, to create the unique touchpoints that engages Porsche’s audience. Each touchpoint leveraged a unique aspect of the Porsche X PUMA launch.
Key Features:
Announce
- Published static images across organic and paid social featuring the silhouettes of the shoes against the 911 Turbo to tease the coming of the Porsche X PUMA partnership.
Shoe Reveal
- Partnered with VICE’s “Sauce Talk” to deliver two custom episodes, diving into the Porsche X PUMA partnership in a relatable, stylized way. VICE’s director of merchandise, Cheech, gave a detailed rundown of each colorway and which generation of the 911 Turbo it represented.
- Published static images across organic and paid social featuring all eight colorways with the respective 911 Turbo models.
- Partnered with HYPEBEAST to create custom executions including an editorial announcement, a digital experience on HYPEBEAST’s site, custom unboxing video and support on HYPEBEAST’s social pages.
Shoe Drop
- Hosted the world’s fastest pre-sale only lasting 2.7 seconds, which is the 0-60mph sprint time for the latest 911 Turbo generation.
- Built a custom Snapchat AR lens that allowed users to “try on” the shoes from the comfort of their own homes. People were able to swipe through the eight different pairs of shoes, corresponding with the eight generations of the 911 Turbo, to see which pair fit their style best.
- Utilized influencers as authentic voices to create buzz and anticipation. With a partnership this bold, it needed influencers that were not typical “bloggers.” The influencers needed to reach beyond Porsche’s automotive core. As a result, C-K teamed up with content creators whose talents aligned with the audience’s passion points. One of the influencers was an electric violinist who has performed with Pharrell. Another was a music video director who worked with musician Drake. We even worked with a “TrapHouseJazz” singer (yes, this is a real genre!). The influencers celebrated the partnership in style creating unique content, including music videos and unboxing moments, that sparked their audiences’ interests and drove them to purchase the sneakers.
After Shoe Sellout
- Continued to push the Snapchat AR lens that allowed users to try on shoes. This allowed the partnership to live on despite the shoes selling out so quickly.
- Changed paid social messaging to educate audiences about the historic partnership rather than driving users to purchase shoes.
Objectives
The two main objectives for this collaboration:
- Sell 2000 pairs of sneakers within the first 48 hours
- Garner 25MM impressions among the target audience
Results
The Porsche X PUMA partnership exceeded expectation among targeted audiences.
- We sold all 4,000 pairs of sneakers online in less than 24 hours! In fact, influencer content specifically helped us reach new audiences and accounted for a significant 15% of total online sales, which far exceeded expectations
- Leveraging multiple social platforms to reach the Driven & Sneakerhead audiences, social garnered 92MM impressions to build awareness of the partnership.
- Custom executions on HYPEBEAST drove a dwell time that was 72% higher than benchmark, showing how engaged Porsche’s audience was with the content.
- Influencer content garnered a 9.9% engagement rate, beating campaign goals by 296%.
- The Snapchat lens exceeded benchmark for retail lens share rate by 120%, further establishing awareness for the brand throughout the partnership.
Video for Porsche X PUMA: Two Icons of Fast
