Over the weekend I picked up a postcard at a pizza place for the Tux with Chucks Prom, hosted by Urban Outfitters, Mischieve Hornitos, PBR, death + taxes magazine, and, of course, Converse.
The promo copy states, “Buy a pair Chucks at Urban Outfitters and get two tickets to the Tux With Chucks Prom, an opportunity to relive the most awkwardly awesome night of your life.”
(Please note that I am quoting the flyer exactly as it's written, and I don’t think anyone proofread it.)
Two things about this postcard/promotion immediately struck me as odd:
- The couple in the “awkward prom picture” looks kind of cool. If I had gone to my prom, I totally would have worn that dress.
- They didn't list a url! WTF?
The event is happening on Friday night at Studio B in Brooklyn – not too far from my regular hangout. I was planning to spy on it and try to gauge the effectiveness of the entirely offline promotion, and that would still be true if I hadn’t just received an email about it from myopenbar.com, guaranteeing free entry and free Hornitos Tequila and PBR from 8 PM on. Yup, you don’t actually have to buy Chucks from Urban to get in – just RSVP.
It gets weirder.
The post on myopenbar.com does not mention Urban Outfitters’ or Converse’s sponsorship of the event and instead says it’s presented by Death + Taxes Magazine. Marketing FAIL much? What will be the reaction of the schmuck who picked up this postcard, bought Cons at UO, and, after feeling ever-so-slightly exclusive about this party, realizes he could have just RSVPed to some magazine he’d never heard of for access? Probably not one of brand loyalty – for Converse or for Urban Outfitters.
It's a shame that big brands Converse and UO couldn't do a better job to leverage themselves with such a simple promotion. They could have done some amazing webwork to engage their audience with easy-to-do UGC: submit your terrible prom story, upload your crappy prom photo, make a request and dedication to be played at the party – SOMETHING!
Oh well.
One more diss and I'm done.
The copy from myopenbar.com is much more interesting than the copy from Urban Outfitters:
Free tequila, free PBR and performances from Crocodiles and Japanese Motors, which were clearly booked by someone with much better taste than the principal. RSVP to tuxwithchucks@dt-mag.com.
