Oakley Cycles to Cheers for India

Luxury eyewear company, Oakley reached about 5,000 people through the three-day activity

The California-based company, Oakley recently launched a mall activity to promote its eyewear brand, in India. Oakley, which is positioned as a sports and lifestyle eyewear brand, wanted to use the Commonwealth Games as a platform. To do this, it launched an on-ground initiative, called 'United through Sports, Cheers for India'.

Luxxotica, sells sunglasses under the brand names Oaklay, Ray-Ban, Persol and Vogue, rolled out the Cheers for India campaign with activation agency, Candid Marketing.

The objective of the campaign was to make potential consumers aware of the superiority of Oakley sunglasses through a scope machine test, along with some engagement.

For this, a demonstration zone was devised to conduct the scope machine test at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon. The test focused on how Oakley's sunglasses are optically superior compared to other brands.

Further, to motivate the target consumers to do their bit and cheer for India, a cycling game was devised. In the demo zone, cycles were placed in front of a plasma screen, which displayed three flags -- a mega Oakley flag and a two small Oakley flags.

"As Oakley sunglasses have ranges specifically designed for different type of sports; the activity was designed around the Games, which gave consumers a platform to cheer for India. Cycling was used by the brand to associate itself with sports, to showcase its product range and invite people to the scope machine test," says Devika Shama, VP - client servicing, Candid Marketing.

The participants were given Oakley sunglasses to wear and were then asked to cycle for a minute. In that one minute, the distance covered by the participant was his or her contribution to cheer for India.

The mega flag on the screen reflected the cumulative contribution of all the participants - Cheer Miles -- and the small flags reflected the contribution of the participants currently cycling. Software had been designed to feed in the details of the participants and also how they performed; this information was displayed on the plasma screen through the software. The winner was gratified with Oakley branded merchandise.

In the three-day activation that began on October 1, about 500 km were contributed by 1,064 people. The activity reached about 5,000 people in this duration.