To promote Heritage Boot, an Austin boot maker, we came up with a twist on the Shoemaker’s Elves: four boot maker’s elves, who live and work in their underground lair, below Heritage Boot. Our team created a backstory to give them history and a reason for being: creating authentic boots by hand for their lucky host, Heritage Boot. Created through Proof Advertising.
We created an immersive site, based on the elves' underground home. Visitors learned the boot making process and actually built a boot by playing a different game in each elf's room. The completed boot was then launched above ground, into the main Heritage Boot store and website.
Intro video for the site
The Boot Elves' secret lair, under Heritage Boot
El Pepe's room
Guano's room
Zapato's room
Pico's room
Video of the site in action.
The four Boot Elves, each with a unique part in the boot making process.
Austin Chronicle ads
More t-shirts
To push traffic to the site, we created social media assets for each of the elves, stop motion YouTube videos, newspaper ads, t-shirts, and stickers with the URL placed around downtown Austin. The site and guerrilla campaign were launched during SXSW to maximize reach, both locally and beyond.
The campaign generated significant buzz, including hundreds of thousands of free media impressions, giving Heritage Boot a welcome boost in name recognition, both online and in-store traffic, and sales. The owner has since sold the brand and is enjoying a comfortable retirement.