Vans Inc. in Cypress marked the Year of the Rooster—which runs from Jan. 28 to Feb. 15, 2018 on the Chinese calendar—with a specially designed shoe collection developed in cooperation with Shanghai-based designer Kim Kiroic.
People born during a Year of the Rooster—it’s one of the 12 annual designations in the cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar—are considered to be dependable, hardworking, and career-oriented. Their lucky colors are gold, brown, terra cotta, beige and yellow—a palette that Vans used for its six-shoe collection.
The footwear and apparel retailer also launched a 1-minute video featuring an office employee who shows up to work sporting a punk-inspired crest and checkered terra cotta sweater, prompting co-workers to shed their suit jackets and start dancing —and of course, skateboard. The video is posted on the brand’s YouTube channel.
Vans had about $2.2 billion in sales last year. Recent growth was “driven by a high single-digit percentage rate increase in the Americas business and more than 20% growth in Asia-Pacific,” according to Greensboro, N.C.-based parent VF Corp.
Countdown to ‘New Paradigm’
Kia Motors America Inc. set up an online countdown to help it reveal its newest vehicle over the weekend at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It launched thecurveahead.net and released several short teaser videos of a sports car speeding down raceways in Germany and South Korea.
“For curious minds, the curve ahead is all about potential, as a new paradigm of performance beckons in the distance,” the automaker posted on the website.
Kia’s sales totaled 647,598 vehicles last year, up 3.5% over a year earlier.
Famous Faces
Taco Bell Corp.’s “sponsored lens” on Snapchat, which enabled users to take selfies that transformed their heads into tacos, made it to Wall Street Journal’s “Best and Worst Ads of 2016: The Things We Can’t Unsee.”
The marketing ploy by the Irvine-based fast food chain “received 224 million views on Snapchat, making it the most viewed sponsored lens since Snap Inc. introduced the program in the fall of 2015,” the newspaper said, placing it in the “best” category.
Agency on a Roll
Huntington Beach-based Grupo Gallegos worked with Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore., on the latest Intuit Inc. TurboTax campaign.
The multicultural agency created the Spanish-language version of the “Relax There’s TurboTax” ad featuring retired Boston Red Sox first baseman David Ortiz, who’s now teaching tennis lessons and wondering if he can write off all of the tennis balls hit out of the court. His questions are answered via a live one-way video connection to a Turbo Tax expert.
Another 30-second ad shows actress Karla Souza hosting family members who “stay much longer than expected and contribute … little.” Souza, who starred in Mexican box office hits “Nosotros los Nobles” and “Instructions Not Included,” uses her phone video chat to ask Turbo Tax if she can claim the visitors as dependents.
“This year’s campaign is the next step in redefining the TurboTax brand by proving that TurboTax has human help on demand so that people know they’re never alone,” said Intuit Senior Vice President of Marketing Greg Johnson in a statement. “The campaign … demonstrates that TurboTax can serve a broad range of taxpayers, including Latinos, self-employed or those who’ve had life changes, by providing immediate access to expert assurance.”
The campaign launched on New Year’s Day during NFL games broadcasts. Additional spots will roll out over the next few weeks. It includes digital and social media components and will continue throughout the tax season in “high-impact sports, entertainment and cultural moments—including a 45-second ad on Sunday, February 5 in America’s biggest football game,” Intuit said.
Grupo Gallegos also created several Spanish-language ads for Kia featuring Santa Claus, who’s apparently not going back to the North Pole anytime soon—he’s folding laundry with a mom in one commercial and serving milk and cookies for breakfast in another. The ads were humorous takes on the automaker’s Holidays On Us deal, which enabled buyers to postpone their first car payment for five months.
