How PR works, part 57: Welcome to Socktober
Dr Mumbo finds himself on some curious mailing lists.
So he gets to se press releases from all over the world.
This one, emailed all the way from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is going to take some beating.
Let’s remember that’s adults, who at one point had dreams and aspirations, worked together in order to devise a month dedicated to socks. Then they came up with Socktober. Then the phrase “rock out with your sock out.” And then they decided it was worth a hashtag.
Then they went home, no doubt feeling fulfilled.
September 23, 2013 (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) – SmartWool, the category leader in outdoor and snowsports socks, has declared October as National Sock Month and will launch a month-long retail engagement campaign known as Socktober.
“In declaring October National Sock Month and introducing Socktober, we challenged the team to leverage all channels in a coordinated effort to drive excitement at retail,” says Mark Satkiewicz, SmartWool’s president. “The result is that our rep force is totally aligned; our media dollars are targeted around hundreds of doors and our social audience is engaged.”
On October 1st, SmartWool’s inaugural Socktober promotion kicks off at participating retailers nationwide and takes design cues from ’80s hair metal artwork. Participating dealers will be ‘socked’ – ie: completely surprised – with boxes of socks and Socktober-specific promotional programs. Additional retailers, as well as random fans and followers, will be ‘socked’ throughout the month. SmartWool will also initiate a month-long advertising campaign based on the consumer profiles of participating merchants.
“More than ever, consumers are seeking out a meaningful purchase dialogue,” says Carol Davidson, Smartwool’s vice president of marketing. “Our goal with Socktober is to not only facilitate this discussion, but to also place our retail partners at the center of it – inviting our audience to become their customer.”
Consumer outreach will drive traffic to a specific Socktober URL, directing users to a participating Socktober dealer landing page, a Socktober playlist by the Spotify music service, as well as a Facebook sweepstakes portal. SmartWool will also reward the stand out rock-themed tweets, Instagram photos, and Facebook posts with socks, Socktober guitar picks, and other promotional items.
Follow or interact with SmartWool’s Socktober initiative at rockoutwithyoursocksout.com or #Socktober.
hilariously stupid 🙂
Although to be fair to the PR folk, the fact that you received a press release about it doesn’t mean that they were responsible for it.
This is more likely to have been a marketing initiative, than a PR one as its a promotional tool. Most likely, the marketing folk threw this to their PR company or their PR person and said “make a press release out of it!”
Here’s some news for you marketers. The media do not care about your promotions. If you want to be promoted in the media, you have to create news or buy ads. There’s no in between….
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“a meaningful purchase dialogue”? KILL ME NOW
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‘Cocktober’ more like it. I don’t need a dialogue to inform my sock purchases (other than ‘do they fit?’ and ‘how much are they?’). Although I imagine the cost question will now have a higher numerical answer (for Americans anyway) in order to pay for this s(h)ockingly unengaging concept.
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“leverage all channels in a coordinated effort to drive excitement at retail…”??? I too have lost the will to live. I’m so glad my PR career never sank to these depths.
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Oh dear….one of the reasons my stint in consumer PR was short and not so sweet and I moved back into corporate communication as soon as I had the chance. What a load of rubbish.
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What I like most is not the story itself, but that Tim/Dr Mumbo has deflected the (over) reaction from ‘how PR really works’ and raised the middle-finger with this little gem.
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Mumbrella you are being mean and nasty to PR people.
Again.
PR people have feelings too you know?
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considering PR people are responsible for half the content of this website, it’s a little cheeky Tim
but then again, you do like soft targets and you do have your favourites
speaking of which, it’s been a long time since we’ve heard the sage words of Mr Andy Lark….can you follow him up and see where he’s at these days?
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Your all being a little unfair, They were just trying to dip a toe in the water and increase sales and this is a step in the right direction.
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