Case Study: How Metro Shoes content marketing to create outreach on Valentine's day

In collaboration with Humans of Bombay, Metro Shoes launched the #FoundMyPair campaign on social media prior to Valentine's day.

This case study explores how #FoundMyPair, executed by Makani creatives for Metro Shoes, in collaboration with Humans of Bombay, leveraged love stories of their followers to reach more than 12L+ people through Facebook & Instagram.

Category Introduction

As one of the largest footwear-producing markets in the world, this consumer segment in India thrived on a large share volume of what is called casual footwear at over 61 percent as of 2017. While the sectors were primarily categorized into men’s, women’s, and kids’ footwear, the retailers were dominated by the unorganized players.  

Indian footwear market with a market share of about ten percent, apparel, and footwear came second after food and grocery in the retail industry in India. The footwear market in the country was valued at nearly 17 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, fourth worldwide. A majority of these were consumed domestically and the remaining was exported to the United States and countries in the European Union.  

Brand Introduction

Established in 1947, Metro Shoes is a contemporary Indian fashion footwear and accessories brand, that aims to provide a refreshed range for all occasions with quality and comfort that includes casuals, trendy footwear, workwear, or bling & embellished footwear for occasions such as party, festive or wedding. Metro provides a wide range of footwear for the entire family. In addition to men’s, women’s, and kids’ footwear, it also has a wide range of handbags, belts, wallets, and more.

The brand caters to a mid-premium price segment for its customers. As of January 2020, Metro shoes had a network of 216 stores across 113 cities and been one of the flagship brands of Metro Brands Ltd. Metro Brands Ltd., has a network of 545 stores, across over 125 cities. It houses brands like Metro Shoes, Mochi, Walkway, DaVinchi, and operates retail stores for Crocs.

As its marketing objective, the brand came up with an idea to run its social media campaign that started on 9 February 2020.

Summary

On Valentine’s Day, Makani Creatives launched #FoundMyPair, a campaign for Metro Shoes, in association with Humans of Bombay. #FoundMyPair campaign was designed for millennials who wanted to share their love story with the world to inspire future generations.

Metro shoes would then feature each love story shared with them on their social media handle and 1 lucky story would get featured on the Humans of Bombay platform. #FoundMyPair was an opportunity that engages better with the millennials and showcases stories of the brand's followers.

Problem Statement/Objective

• The first objective was to increase brand awareness about Metro Shoes being a young fashion brand catering to a younger audience with its proposition – Find Your Pair. 
• Making the brand more relevant for the younger TG on Valentine’s Day by celebrating the core proposition of “Found My Pair”.
• Outreach

Brief

Leverage Valentine’s Day/Week to attract Millennials & create a strong brand connect around how they found their pair (true love) that passed the test of time.

Also read: Case Study: How OYO reached 8 M+ with global Women’s Day campaign

Creative Idea

• Metro Shoes wanted to touch base with a new audience group (Millennials) and wanted a platform that can talk about love stories in a relatable manner.
• Outside of the conventional way of conducting a contest, the brand partnered with Humans of Bombay where they executed a contest with #FoundMyPair, wherein people were asked to share their love stories that have passed the test of time and 1 of them gets a chance to feature on the Humans of Bombay.

Challenges

• The biggest challenge was to make sure the right communication was portrayed through every post.
• Every love story is special; the brand was looking out for the ones that might have passed the test of time.

Execution

The campaign went live a week prior to Valentine’s Day wherein people were encouraged to share their unique love story and get a chance to feature on Humans of Bombay. Humans of Bombay shared our content on their story by tagging Metro Shoes asking people to share their unique stories with Metro Shoes by clicking on the post.

Platforms used: Instagram (Primarily) & Facebook

Further, the campaign was amplified through a reminder post to reach out to more people before picking the final winner story.

Also read: Case Study: How OYO reached 8 M+ with global Women’s Day campaign

The story that got featured on Humans of Bombay:

Results

• Reach: 12L+
• Engagement: 15L+
• Entries: 75 unique love stories  

Quotes

Speaking about the campaign, Alisha Malik, VP Marketing and Ecommerce, Metro shoes, said, “It is important to be open to experimenting with opportunities on different platforms. It is also important to keep listening to those that engage with your brands, #FoundMyPair is an opportunity to engage better with the millennials and showcase stories of our real followers.”