Because Mizuno running shoes feel hard and stiff on the sales floor, runners have to TRY them, not just TRY THEM ON. By putting thousands of free shoes on running feet, Mizuno’s word-of-mouth campaign The Mezamashii Run Project created a sustainable community of fans and increased store sales.

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Rather than spend all of Muzino’s $1.5 million advertising on paid media, we used half of it to give away shoes to 600 Running Junkie influencers, ranging from running bloggers to run club leaders. Each was sent a handmade direct mail piece with a unique code inviting them to call Mizuno USA to join the Mezamashii Run Project and claim their free pair of Mizunos. Paid media (digital, print and search) in endemic environments, including Runner’s World, Active.com and MapMyRun, kicked in during the second phase of the campaign to invite the broader running community to sign up and take a run in a free pair of Mizunos. The earned media used to incentivize trial of the brand’s running shoes helped exponentially increase the impact of Mizuno’s investment in paid and owned media.

So far, we’ve given away 2,600 pairs of shoes, which created 41,000 members of the Mezamashii Run Project, brand ambassadors who have helped increase site traffic 62% versus the same time period a year ago, while growing Mizuno’s community of Facebook fans and Twitter followers 25%. Brand favorability has soared 54%. And best of all, sales of Mizuno running shoes are up 33% since the campaign launch, more than double the pace of the category.