Trolli and James Harden created an exclusive sneaker candy, Trolli Sour Brite Sneaks with a launch that blurs the lines between the shoe game and the chew game. The campaign was designed as an homage to the successful launch process perfected by sneaker companies, complete with leak, drop and hype phases. Leak began by sampling mini boxes at the NBA All-Star Game with Adidas for the debut of Harden’s Vol. 2 shoes and continued with sneakerhead influencers sharing the candy like real shoes on Instagram, making their followers do a double take. The drop involved Harden himself encouraging people to customize our gummi sneaks on Instagram using the Remix functionality and exclusive unboxing videos with well-known YouTubers. Finally, the hype phase featured three pairs of ultra-rare, life-sized gummi kicks raffled off on StockX, a stock market site known for selling rare sneaks.

To capitalize on our partnership with James Harden, we didn’t just create a campaign — we created a candy to be the campaign. We designed the gummi shoe shape and packaging, then created the campaign to support the launch at 7-Eleven.

? Leak (2/12–3/4):

? 5 sneakerhead influencers shared on Instagram like a real shoe

? Sampled mini shoeboxes at All-Star Game weekend

? Mini essentials influencer kits

? Drop (3/5–3/21) :

? Instagram, Facebook, Twitter paid social for launch

? Harden posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

? Remix Your Kicks on Instagram Stories: Used new Instagram functionality for a sweepstakes to win custom Harden Vol. 2's

? Included posts from @kickstradomis, a well-known sneaker customizer, and Harden

? Unboxing videos from sneakerhead Brad Hall and Jacques Slade

? Hype (3/22 - 4/27):

? StockX life-sized gummi shoes for sale

? NBA “The Warmup” TV segment with life-sized gummi shoes

Media Impressions: 949MM

Paid Social Impressions: 118.3MM

Paid Social Engagements: 9.8MM

Organic Social Impressions: 1.2MM

Organic Social Engagements: 31K

Average Engagement Time with Brand: 7 minutes

Influencer Engagements: 688K

Top selling non-chocolate item at 7-Eleven

Sour Brite Sneaks have made it into more stores at a faster pace than previous exclusive candy launches

Instagram Follower Growth: 11.02%

Twitter Follower Growth: 14.80%