TOMS Shoes
look good, do good — spring 2019, cross-platform content creation
CLIENT: TOMS SHOES // focus: CREATIVE
ALL WORK IS 100% CONCEPTUAL AND WAS PRESENTED TO senior leaders at toms shoes.
PROMPT
Re-imagine the TOMS giving platform through a website revamp and experiential activation.
PROBLEM
TOMS was once an innovator of giving platforms, with their One for One model being the champion signature of their brand. However, now that most competitors have a charitable aspect to their brand, the giving model is outdated. When we surveyed our peers, they all said “TOMS needs to be doing more…” Except they already are. The problem is that people don’t know about it.
INSIGHT
We learned that TOMS’ One for One motto is a double-edged sword: while it is memorable and establishes TOMS as a socially responsible brand, the other causes TOMS supports fall behind -- with the brand’s true community impact not appropriately being reflected in their messaging.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Website prototype done by me on Marvel.
Mock-up by Clayton Gutmann.
experiential activation
Our experiential activation consisted of 5 murals that would be painted by TOMS-appointed local artists to highlight various causes, such as gun violence, bullying, access to fresh water, and LGBTQ+ communities. These branded murals would draw attention to the shoe’s style while also highlighting an important cause. Leveraging the “Instagrammable wall” trend, we hoped that this activation would lead people to share the causes they support on social media (and walk into a TOMS store confident that their purchase would be going to something they believe in).
website revamp
Our website revamp focused on the Your Impact page, for which we had three goals:
Improve UX by streamlining navigation
Add a “Track My Progress” function where returning customers can directly connect their purchase to a cause
Take a TOMS Style quiz to help customers connect their personal style with a shoe line & philanthropic cause that best fits their life.
FEEDBACK
The TOMS staff were impressed by our focus on UX. Although none of us were UX designers, we were able to spot the difficulties in using their “Your Impact” page while trying to have a streamlined shopping experience. For the future, we were challenged to look more into ways the experiential activations could concretely tie the murals to a purchase -- perhaps having pop-up shops nearby, or parading the TOMS truck on a tour around all 5 murals.
reflection
Presenting work in front of TOMS Shoes was something my middle school TOMS-wearing self could not believe. Although this half-semester project was purely conceptual, I was able to learn a lot about the creative strategic process through the guidance of Professors Rohm, Lee, and Schwarz.