RED and The Pineapple Agency Win Gold at the Ex Awards for Under Armour

RED and The Pineapple Agency, a boutique shop specializing in experiential marketing, have won Gold at the Ex Awards for their “Drone Drop” activation on behalf of Under Armour’s Curry 4 sneaker, The Pineapple Agency announced.

The Ex Awards is the world’s largest awards show for experiential marketing. The agencies won in the new category, “Leap of Faith,” which recognises campaigns that took the biggest risk and went all-in on an experiential marketing idea.

“This award for this work means so much to us,” said Justin Moss, CEO at The Pineapple Agency. “Launching the latest Stephen Curry shoe for this client enabled us to merge digital and physical world marketing to reach some pretty enthusiastic fans and create a first. This was the first sneaker release to use a drone-drop experience.”

Curry is a guard on the San Francisco-based NBA team, the Golden State Warriors.

 

The campaign started with teaser videos and clues posted on Under Armour's social-media channels. The Pineapple Agency also partnered with eight local Bay Area influencers and “sneaker-heads” to create additional online content. The final, paid video was released on the morning of the actual drone drop.

Targeted customers, which consisted of Stephen Curry and Golden State Warrior fans as well as technology, sneaker, and basketball enthusiasts around the world, could access a custom, interactive drone-tracking map, which included a basketball mini-game. Fans from Oakland, San Francisco and beyond could join a race to find the hidden Drop Zones, obtain a QR code, and secure a pair of autographed Curry 4s.

The Pineapple Agency and its client developed the interactive map powered by proprietary software, which enabled them to communicate with each drop zone and with digital kiosks where fans could go into a booth to choose a sneaker size and place an order.

After an order was placed, a drone pilot loaded the order from one of five ships contracted for the activation and fly the sneakers to the drop zone. In one day, 30 exclusive pairs of the Curry 4 shoe were delivered via drones to different locations throughout the Bay Area.

Additional results from the campaign included 119 million media impressions, of which 16 million were in social media. Under Armour captured the email addresses of more than 25,000 people.