Business Challenge
OOFOS had audacious goals to create awareness for a new category in footwear, “active recovery,” and aggressively drive sales and ROI for their emerging brand. OOFOS were made for people with active lifestyles, but often health and wellness enthusiasts don’t realize how footwear can help with recovery between training and competitions. OOFOS, which was a little known brand a couple of years ago, had to deliver an authentic, subjective message to their workout warrior target audience that would also create a halo effect for audiences who were also regular exercisers (those who exercise 3-5x/week), those with active occupations (i.e., chefs, cooks, healthcare workers, teachers, military, sales representatives), and pain sufferers (those with constant foot or joint pain). Recovery shoes have traditionally had style challenges so the challenge for messaging was to replace subjectiveness with effectiveness. On top of that, their messaging needed to reach a wide, but captive, audience in an extremely saturated global footwear market.
Business Objectives
OOFOS's objective was to achieve double year-over-year revenue growth while building their brand.
Marketing Objectives
OOFOS's goal was to increase their brand momentum in the active recovery footwear category.
Increase brand awareness among diverse audiences, who are more likely to be foot pain sufferers.
OOFOS's core audience target is Workout Warriors - fitness and sports enthusiasts that exercise regularly and are intentional about constantly improving their fitness routine and living a healthy lifestyle. They value quality over price, more than half (59%) prefer products that offer the latest in new technology and nearly half (45%) would pay extra for a product that is consistent with the image they want to convey. They (74%) spend time on YouTube, presumably consuming workout and related content, as well as Instagram and Spotify (Source 2 listed below).
Tapping into the Workout Warrior mindset, and strong testimonials from early OOFOS wearers, a “lead and follow” approach was developed - having brand ambassadors (mOOvers) share their authentic stories featuring the game-changing footwear. In order to reach broad audiences and capture their attention, mOOvers needed to embody Workout Warriors’ aspirations - athletes competing at the highest levels. Their oftentimes miraculous recovery journeys also highlighted OOFOS OOfoam technology, which absorbs 37% more impact, alleviating stress on sore feet, joints and bones.
Based on media consumption habits, an integrated, multi-channel media plan was developed with strategic partnerships as the focal point that would deliver mOOvers’ stories directly to key audiences.
OOFOS’ business goal was to double their year over year growth in 2022 versus 2021, which they are on track to exceed with a +191% increase in sales.
The first marketing objective was to increase brand momentum in the active recovery footwear category. OOFOS brand momentum increased 10% based on online surveys measuring brand sentiment given to a target sample of adults who have purchased, or considered purchasing, related footwear within the last 12 months. Three-quarters of survey respondents said the brand was gaining traction in May 2022, up from 65% in April 2021, before the mOOvers campaigns launched.
Their additional goal of increasing brand awareness in diverse audiences was also achieved as awareness increased in Black/African American, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian or Alaska Native audiences by 1%, 2% and 4% respectively.
