Keds

Leveraging purpose to connect an older brand to a younger consumer

THE REALITY

Once a market powerhouse and a representation of female empowerment, this 100-year old, iconic brand struggled with the emerging consumer base of young people who perceived the brand to be outdated.

OUR APPROACH

The simple solution would have been to leverage its long-standing commitment to female empowerment history and develop a flashy cause marketing campaign. But we took a different approach. With countless brands talking about female empowerment (YASS!!), we knew that the only way to cut through the noise was for Keds to demonstrate how it actually championed young women.

We built and launched Keds’ Brave Life Project – a program that encouraged girls not only to dare to dream but to also act on those dreams with a $1,000 grant. Not your everyday grants program, we also matched top grant winners with notable celebrity mentors in their chosen fields, including Stacy London and Gia Coppola, and we captured the mentorship experiences for video and social content.

THE IMPACT

We awarded $200,000 in grants over the life of the program and drove tens of thousands of video views.

But best of all, young people were talking about Keds in a whole new way lifting its brand perception out of grandma’s closet and into theirs!