To engage savvy Millennials we focused on a key ZPump product insight.

It’s a unique sneaker because it has a rather striking feature, a small button that is pumped to create a snug fit around the athlete’s foot.

What we’ve learned by talking to athletes about this action is that it creates both a physical sensation and a psychological one too. Athletes get a mental ‘locked-in’ boost when they pump the button, so they use it as a key step in their preparation.

Our idea was to explore this often ignored ritual. To document for the first time the inner preparation athletes go through in that critical moment, and then, using Virtual Reality, allow viewers to experience a wide variety of sporting achievements.

The result was a documentary called “The Moment”.

A five-part video series telling the personal moments within Parkour, Triple Jump, Basketball, Rock Climbing and UFC.

“The Moment” was part of a complex but connected ecosystem of content.

Core films and their VR components formed the first contact point with Millennials.

We then sequenced additional content across Reebok and partner channels with a series of How-To videos. These one-minute films encouraged viewers to take action. From UFC submission holds, backflips in the sand, to rock climbing negatives, we showed our audience how they could move one step closer to the athletes’ stories they’d just experienced.

Still photography captured during each shoot then showed product in increasingly relevant ways and was used both on site and with an email capture program. We also created a series of behind the scenes films for our partners to use as exclusive content to drive further sales.

We even built the Reebok VR mobile channel and designed a cardboard viewer as a retail incentive. The first global sneaker VR channel ever.

Our unique and visceral documentaries captured moments of personal achievement and the sweat and hard work behind them.

Filming was brutal. We got in the ring with Paige VanZant, and we sat in 100°F head in the desert with Sierra Blair-Coyle, and our audience embraced the reality we shared.

In four months we have achieved a whopping 12MM video views (and counting) which is double the forecast target based on all previous video programs.

We were able to directly drive 2.2MM eComm visits, which were more than three times versus target

And then, finally, we beat email and CRM acquisitions by 4X.

From Adweek to the thousands of fan comments, the sentiment was the same “This is the coolest shit I’ve ever fucking seen.”

These films achieved great results. But they also served a higher purpose in our organization proving that great stories don’t just entertain, they can drive sales.