The broadcast region included six countries of Western Europe: Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Spain. All these countries have different cultures, different ways of seeing advertising, and therefore different ways of seeing branded content. Branded entertainment is still a changing product, with brands, agencies and publishers collaborating to find new viable solutions. Europe is perhaps a bit late compared to North America – the mixing of culture and brands is still somewhat frowned upon – but things are changing in light of the success brand content can have for both consumers and brands. Branded entertainment, however, is not a new concept in this region: brand magazines have existed for a long time (Air France, Hermes), and the Michelin Guide, perhaps the first work of branded content, was created in France in 1900. Digital has accelerated this existing process, and also allows one fundamental change: the sharing of content across countries, to reach out to subcultures, or “tribes’, that exist beyond frontiers.

The existing limits are more imposed by the platforms, and the users: brands need to share “organic” content, avoiding promotional language – perhaps not so much a limit but rather a motivation to create true original quality content

Each episode of the series focused on a popular aspect of New York youth culture, both in everyday life (Tinder, food, Foot Check), and more pop culture related (Zombies, clearly a nod the Walking Dead), in touch with the viewer.

These episodes were published on existing social platforms, already massively used by the targeted audience (Facebook and Twitter), who are searching for content, and want to share. As they were humorous and visually interesting (storytelling without showing faces, use of cartoons, music), the posts felt organic, almost as if a friend had shared it on their own Facebook page.

.The campaign was true success in terms of online presence and engagement: nearly 32,500,000 impressions, 7,000,000 video views, 3,300,000 user engagements, and probably most importantly for the business objective, over 66,000 clicks to the Foot Locker Europe website. One of the main objectives of the campaign was to engage with the audience, which is what happened – the average engagement rate was of 12,01% per episode (compared to the 2,01% of the previous campaign “A Week of Greatness”), higher than any other Foot Locker campaign.

The brand wanted to demonstrate that they truly understood their audience, were not passive in the creation of their cultural identity, but an actor in defining the sneaker age: sneakers as part of a lifestyle, in which having the best kicks is an important aspect. Some episodes clearly hit a nerve with the audience, proving this mutual understanding, and establishing Foot as an entertaining content publisher. The Tinder episode for example, was a huge success: nearly 600,000 views on Facebook alone, and an engagement rate of 19.25%. “Foot Check”, another popular episode, led to over 150,000 views and 1,000 likes on the French Foot Locker page alone, higher than the average results.