The Helen Marlen company has been operating for over twenty years. Offering a few product lines from affordable to ultra premium, the company owned a network of mono- and multibrand boutiques, an online store and showrooms at Kyiv’s best trade centers. Their widely-focused business model required a clearly articulated brand strategy. We realized that the Helen Marlen footwear was not ordinary footwear any more, but still not a total luxury look. It was by no means a mass fashion, but still not an exceptional luxury. It was not a bunch of footwear stores any more, but still not a luxury shopping destination. Considering its two-year silence, their leap forward had to involve the communication that would remind consumers of the brand without having to make any sweeping changes in the business strategy.
We suggested going back to Helen Martin’s roots, since nobody loved footwear the way Helen Martin did. Shoes are a real passion. This is a point of entry into the world of luxury. A pair of decent shoes opens up the door to the Helen Martin fashion world. To deliver the positioning, we created the SHOES ON advertising campaign. It might seem to focus on perfect bodies of athletes, but on taking a closer look it became clear that the most interesting thing was below their ankles.
Shoes On campaign by Helen Marlen visibly rocked the Ukrainian media space. Very few remained unfazed by picturing of shoes on flawless naked bodies of dancers of the London and Düsseldorf Ballets. The question to extend this success came up for Helen Marlen together with a new collection. We had a task to develop a new communication for the brand sticking to Shoes On.
As in previous campaign, we could not do without cooperation with dancers. However, in communication of Shoes On Vol.2 we still gave them an opportunity to feel comfortable in their own skin. In cooperation with Apache Crew team, under Koloah soundtrack, we filmed a dance video completely and totally devoted to shoes. We told about a new collection by the language of choreography. Flexing, popping, break, tatting, contemporary, as it turned out, reveal shoes character better than any descriptions and show a product range more successful than any plots whatsoever. After receipt of co-created product of such team, there was nothing for us but to add a call for action — whichever and wherever. So the slogan Shoes On. Step Up. was created.
