Mission Playground Makes an Impact on Awareness with Eco-Conscious Clothing

Challenge: Mission Playground, an eco-conscious and active lifestyle clothing company, selected Zenzi to launch its new brand into a very cluttered and competitive retail marketplace. The goal of the campaign was to introduce Mission Playground’s clothing line to the media and gain greater visibility within the outdoor and LOHAS industries. With a minimal budget to start and no previous marketing campaign, the first step was to put a strategic plan together to reach their target market and ensure awareness of the Mission Playground mission and their unique innovative designs. The goal was to reach as many relevant audiences as possible through traditional media, trade shows and online in emerging media outlets. Mission Playground wanted to be recognized as a leader and innovator in the sustainable clothing market and target outdoor enthusiasts and conscious lifestyle consumers. Zenzi got to work to ensure streamlined messaging and the biggest impact possible for this small start-up.

Solution: Zenzi researched the key media and editors attending key trade shows such as the Outdoor Retailer Market. We leveraged our media relationships to get in-person interviews with influential editors allowing Mission Playground to unveil their next clothing line. With only one month to prepare for the first tradeshow, we hit the ground running to pull together the key messaging and materials for a press kit. We contacted each of the editors individually and scheduled as many face to face interviews possible.

To maintain top of mind awareness with Mission Playground’s influential target media Zenzi proactively output stories for Mission Playground on topics such as “Tips on Being Sustainable,” “Going Green,” and “Mission Playground pioneering a new space in the apparel industry.” Online, we leveraged social networking sites, Wikipedia entries, and key blogs and websites where consumers go for product news and information. Using a combination of press releases, pitches, media alerts and interesting fact sheets, Zenzi helped Mission Playground to stand out from the thousands of apparel companies that exist in the retail space and made the media curious about why this new up and comer had so much to say.

Results: In a matter of months, this unknown four-year-old company was being featured in national publications alongside leading companies that have been around for decades. Mission Playground has developed into a well-known brand throughout the outdoor and conscious lifestyle industries with over 100 million media impressions spanning over a year and eight months. At Mission Playground’s first trade show, the interviews resulted in coverage in some of the leading outdoor media outlets, including SNEWS, Urban Climber Magazine, Backpacker, Reno Magazine, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, Rocky Mountain Sports, Windy City Sports, Wend Magazine, and more. In less than one year, Mission Playground and their gear appeared in Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, Body + Soul, US Airways In-Flight Magazine, The Denver Post, Outdoor Retailer Magazine, 944, San Diego Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Diet & Nutrition, Delicious Living, Organic Products Retailer, TreeHugger.com, Digg.com and many others. The web value of the campaign totaled $23,725 and impressions were 14,393,653. The total print value in coverage was $123,246 and impressions totaled 3,338,905. Total readership was estimated at 44,331,395. In 2007 the coverage has increased across the board and we have secured a web value of $61,519 with 16,435,629 impressions. The total print value over an 8 month period surpassed $275,000 and the number of impressions totaled is over 5 million. Total readership is estimated at 53,671,000 for a year and eight months.

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