Kenny Powers, played by actor Danny McBride, is a fictional character from the HBO series, Eastbound and Down. On the show, Powers is a retired, controversial baseball pitcher who still thinks he’s the man. He is also self-centered, profane, misogynistic, and a cult (anti-)hero among young athletes in the US.In this campaign, we had K-Swiss ‘sign’ Kenny to be an athlete-endorser for a new line of training shoes, Tubes.Jeremy Shockey and Patrick Willis are famous NFL players.

We seeded the idea through broad sports press (USA Today, Sports Illustrated) and a partnership with funnyordie.com through which we showed Kenny getting signed by the president of K-Swiss.

Hardcore fans of Kenny Powers created a groundswell through social media which was followed by a paid media campaign featuring TV spots, OOH spectaculars, print, wild postings and subway cards.

Once your interest was piqued you were rewarded online at K-Swiss' Facebook page, which invited you to download the “Workout Wingman.” An application that enabled Kenny Powers to take over your Facebook page. Also, housed on Facebook was an interactive film highlighting product benefits hosted by Kenny Powers as well as content films from the campaign. The campaign was rounded off with a digital buy partnering with ESPN, which included a homepage takeover where Kenny interacted (doing training exercises) with the real estate on site.

The campaign resulted in significant shifts for both the company and consumer engagement with the brand:-250% increase in online sales.

-Domestic futures up 50%.-1 million earned media views on FunnyorDie.

-900% increase in Facebook fans; 1200% increase in engagement.

-“Shoe brand with the biggest buzz” in Footwear News, above Nike.