Oakley wraps a bus to educate consumers

The activity aims to educate consumers about the brand's superior features and increase footfalls at the activation zone.

Sports and luxury brand Oakley has recently started a below the line (BTL) activity, called Go Beyond Boundaries, to promote its new range of sunglasses. The activity, which involves wrapping a bus with Oakley creatives, has been executed by Candid Marketing. The objective of the activity is to educate consumers about the brand's superior features, and to attract footfalls to the activation zone.

The interior of the bus has been transformed into a demonstration zone, where a Scope Machine test explains how Oakley sunglasses are optically superior to the sunglasses of other brands. The test highlights the benefits of Oakley's patented High Definition Optics (HDO) technology.

Outside the bus, a cricket net set-up, complete with a bowling machine, attracts passers-by to come and try their luck and 'Score more than 36 in an over'. The activation team from Oakley present in the area interacts with and invites people to play the game, and also check out the Oakley Scope Machine test.

In the game, each participant is required to bat six balls bowled by the bowling machine. As hitting more than 36 runs is not really possible in one over, an extra ball, called the 'O Ball', is bowled to every participant. Whoever is able to score more than 36 runs in one over is awarded Oakley merchandise.

The target audience of the activity comprises youth who mostly lead a lifestyle inspired by sports.

Talking about the aim of the activity, Devika Sharma, managing partner, Candid Marketing, says, "The activity is aimed at creating brand awareness and educating consumers about Oakley's eyewear technology, HDO. The activation also involves promoting the fact that cricketer Yuvraj Singh has been signed as the new brand ambassador for Oakley."

Speaking about the brief received by Candid Marketing, Sharma says, "Since Oakley relates itself heavily to sports and lifestyle, the brand wanted to use the IPL as a platform to promote itself in India. It wanted to use a mobile platform that could travel across the country and educate the target audience about the brand's superiority. Other than this, to excite the youth, we were asked to arrange some cricket-oriented engagement activities."

The locations where the bus was parked were carefully mapped and selected to generate maximum eyeballs and engagement. Sharma adds, "We have selected the areas based on footfalls and locality. The duration per day depends on the format of the activity and the crowd present at each location. When we use the bowling machine set-up on a particular day, the bus is parked at that location for a longer duration, say, from 11 am to 8:30 pm."

The activity has already taken place in Delhi, NCR and Mumbai. Subsequently, the bus will travel to Bengaluru and Chennai.

Talking about the reactions of the consumers, Sharma adds, "We have received an overwhelming response from the activity, so far. Participation has been pretty good, too. The Scope Machine test inside the bus has been an eye-opener for many consumers."

The outdoor activation started on April 30, and will go on till the end of May.

Oakley is also running a Facebook contest, called Oakley Be The Rebel using the IPL as a platform to promote the brand on Facebook and increase its fan base.