Clarks Kicks Off Desert Boots Campaign on WhatsApp

clarks desert bootsShoe manufacturer and retailer Clarks is using the WhatsApp OTT messaging platform for a digital project aimed at bringing the story of its Clarks Desert Boot to life for fans of the brand.

As part of promotion efforts for its Clarks Originals line, users of the messaging app will be prompted to add a new number to their contacts via teaser films on social media. Users will then receive messages, images, playlists and video content through the app from four figures from the history of the boot.

The project will be introduced by Nathan Clark, who as a British soldier in Burma, came across a simple suede and crepe boot design worn by officers who had found them in Cairo. Returning home to the tiny village of Street where his familys shoe business was based, he convinced them to adopt the style.

The campaign then introduces three new figures, each with its own WhatsApp identity, representing the Mod subculture, the 1968 student riots in Paris and the birth of reggae in 1970s Kingston, all of which had strong ties to the Clarks Desert Boot design.

“We want to take you back in time,” wrote Clarks in a blog post on the project. “Back to when riotous French students filled the cobbled streets of Paris, to 70s Kingston were the heart and soul of reggae music resonated through the streets of Trenchtown, and directly into the epicentre of 60s British youth culture where a group of modernists were busy creating a legacy of fashion and music. What do these stories have in common? The Clarks Desert Boot.”