So i read in article (registration required) in a recent issue of Advertising Age (who more and more is writing about marketing/public relations campaigns) about a very cool website and content campaign created for Crocs shoes.  The campaign - cities by foot - is centered around short videos taken in towns that are known to be great walking towns.  There are a series of short videos that highlight great restaurants, shopping destinations, fun nightlife places and random cool things along the way.  There are a few regular hosts that basically go into a city, shoot some cool video and simply post them on the site.  They interview owners of the places they find along the way for some added local connections, and provide everything on a very simple map to check out. The inclusion of the Croc shoes is very subtle, in the form of cutaways of a shoe walking off camera, heading for the next destination.

The company is now extending the content for use on mobile phones, providing a natural way for people to truly take advantage of the walking tour content when they are out and about and not in front of their PC.  I hope next up will be people nominating favourite parts of their cities for new content, perhaps auditions to be the next on-air host.  Maybe a special DVD as a gift with purchase of favourite walking paths.  How about some celebrities happen to be casually shopping or eating at some of the destinations - love it!   

The best part of the article in Ad Age -- "for the price of two 30-second TV ads, nearly 80 videos were shot and the website was constructed."   This is a great example of how much further marketing dollars can go when funds previously earmarked for advertising are reallocated for content/consumer campaigns.