Global retailer Steve Madden has launched an augmented reality marketing campaign for Summer ‘22, with Australia marked as a key player.
The campaign features three celebrities stepping into a virtual universe – called Maddenwood – as they “audition” Steve Madden shoes.
The campaign expands to feature large-scale posters in and around Steve Madden in Highpoint Shopping Centre, Victoria – Australia’s highest performing Steve Madden standalone store – and in New York, Los Angeles and key markets around the world.
The campaign is expected to immerse consumers into the “trippy” Maddenwood universe through AR content activated by unique QR codes.
Speaking with Ragtrader, Signal Brands marketing manager Casey Pascoe-Webbe, the distribution company for Steve Madden in Australia, said the country is a key market for the brand.
“We really are a really good fit from a brand personality perspective,” Pascoe-Webbe said. “Stores perform exceptionally well.
“And when we look at it from a wholesale perspective, in both handbags and footwear, it really leads to game in the department store space in wholesale as well.
“So it's a logical place for us to support the campaign here in Australia.”
Pascoe-Webbe continued, saying the Maddenwood campaign is “stage two” of the wider Steve Madden Maddenverse, having launched last year.
“It's a bigger brand piece,” she said. “It's a lot of fun. It's edgy, and it's very, very on brand.”
The idea behind the Maddenwood campaign imagines a world where the brand’s latest styles allow consumers to become whomever they want to be.
Speaking on the idea, Steve Madden said it is “the manifestation of that mindset at its most aspirational.”
“We’ve always been forward-thinking with a clear sense of the brand and our Consumers,” Madden said. “I’m a big movie buff and am fascinated by the whole idea of Hollywood.
“Here we are creating our own version of Hollywood the Madden way.”
At the centre of the campaign are three videos featuring three youthful celebrities that are expected to capture the younger demographic. They include TikTok musician Bella Poarch, MTV award nominee Latto, and Actress Chloe Cherry.
In their videos, they screen-test for roles named after a Steve Madden style featured in the campaign off a simple script:
“I’m BELLA/LATTO/CHLOE, and I’m auditioning for the role of style name: FINITE/CYPRESS/PALOMA”
Each of them are then “plunged” into Maddenwood, where they showcase their boot style.
“The younger Steve Madden consumer, you know, operates daily in the digital space,” Pascoe-Webbe said. “They're almost a native when it comes to playing around this really new, fun and exciting virtual reality situation.
“A lot of our customers are diehards for the brand, and the opportunity to 'audition' for the role of a shoe in a Maddenwood production just makes a lot of sense.”
The global campaign has just launched in Australia, North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and South Africa.
Additional campaign videos and imagery will be featured across Madden’s social media platforms in every region, and its websites, as well as in Steve Madden stores worldwide.