Each year, fewer people are shopping in brick and mortar stores. Rather than lean on “point in time” occasions, Shinola, a 5+ year old Detroit watch and leather goods company founded on the premise of bringing manufacturing back to America, needed a more powerful, emotive reason to drive traffic.

Post a vitriolic election and surprising results, our country was divided. In response to this negative environment, Shinola’s 2017 sentiment became less of a marketing angle and more of a movement. We knew people wanted to do more in America and we wanted to turn that “want to” into a “can do.”

Our effort started with a simple rallying cry: “Let’s roll up our sleeves.”

We launched a campaign that re ected these brand values and inspired consumers. We leveraged every channel in a way that tied back to this pursuit and added value to people’s lives— what we did not do was just important as what we did do:

Out-of-Home – Not stand-alone—“salesy” billboards. Inspire people to come together. We used successive placements to elevate statements that encouraged people to participate in our mission.

Street Teams – Not walking advertisements. Elevate a diverse set of voices and perspectives. We leveraged them to promote a pop-up blog we co-created with New York Magazine about what it takes to succeed in America.

Digital –not banner wallpaper. Show the great things happening in this world amidst
a sea of bad news. We surrounded the morning headlines with a positive message from Queen Rania of Jordan: “It’s more important to be a part of a process by rolling up your sleeves, being on the ground building stuff.”

Mobile –not invisible. Rooted in community. We leveraged inspiring dynamic messaging post out-of-home exposure tailored to geographic locations, such as “The Golden Gate wasn’t found, it was built”.

Print—not “selling” something. Evoke Shinola’s hard-working spirit. We worked with Forbes and Entrepreneur to tell stories of people who are creating jobs and helping others.

Experiences—not vapid or trivial. Motivating and meaningful. We created an open-mic storytelling competition with The Moth where audiences could share how they improve their communities.

• We’ve generated 538MM earned media impressions, 10x higher than paid media impressions.

• We’re driving people in-store. Shinola experienced a 35%+ lift in traf c and a 29%+ in sales across stores.

• We’re encouraging people to improve their communities and celebrate hard work. One person going to Africa to build houses tweeted “This is how I’m rolling up my sleeves.” “You’re an inspiration to my growing sewing company, thanks for showing America we can do it,” shared another.