FOSSIL Q LAUNCH
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
Fossil successfully navigated the competitive smartwatch market by targeting the niche of fashionable casual athletes. Positioned between Apple's tech-savvy users and Fitbit's fitness enthusiasts, Fossil identified a market gap for customers wanting both technology and style. The Fossil Q, a colorful, modern smartwatch, was launched to meet this demand, combining fitness tracking, tech appeal, and sleek design. The campaign leveraged the "fashion meets fitness" tagline, emphasizing Fossil as the ideal choice for tracking activity with style.
Utilizing South by Southwest (SXSW) as a platform, Fossil engaged the tech and fitness community through product placements, giveaways, and events. Influencer partnerships with Kristen Bell, Leslie Odom, and Yara Shahidi further boosted brand awareness, resulting in a successful launch that exceeded sales projections and surpassed overall Fossil brand awareness.
Overview
Tech giant Apple had just distributed the watch industry with the launch of the Apple Watch, and start-up FitBit was further taking market share in the industry. Fossil, a traditional watch brand, needed to adjust or risk becoming extinct. The challenge was finding the whitespace in a crowded smartwatch market and quickly building brand awareness. For that, we identified our target audience and incorporated then their whimsical culture into the brand campaign.
The Culture
Somewhere between the more tech-savvy Apple customer and the hard-core fitness athlete sat a customer who wanted to incorporate new technology and stay fit but still wanted to "look good." Our customer research showed this was a compelling factor and painpoint for Apple and Fitbit customers. Apple had the technology, and Fitbit tracked steps, but customers consider both "ugly."
Customers wanted to track their steps, run, and activity but do it with style. There, we found our niche - the fashionable, casual athlete.
The campaign concept was to brand Fossil as the only option to successfully tackle fitness tracking for athletes, technology for the techies, and a sleek look for fashion-conscious customers. We included the fashion meets fitness tagline to communicate our message. This one simple, memorable line said it all.
We launched the Fossil Q - a smartwatch with a colorful, modern design. A watch you can wear during your workout, at work, and keep it on during a night out. The Fossil Q had the technology but with style.
Our target customer has a fun and playful personality. Similarly, the Fossil brand is light-hearted and cheerful, and we used a curious customer persona to connect the Fossil Q to the existing customers and as a way to reach new customers.
To reach the fashion fitness customer, we needed a platform to tell our story, and we chose South by Southwest (SXSW). SXSW celebrates the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture. It's where tech meets brands meets innovation. It was a natural location for grassroots efforts to connect with the fitness-tech community.
The SXSW creative and innovative community has a long history of propelling brands (Twitter, Instagram, etc.). We used product placements and giveaways and held events to build brand awareness further.
We ran our campaign across Instagram and Pinterest to grow the brand in social media. We directed all traffic back to fossil.com, where we incorporated a complete site take-over to tell a deeper product story and further drive awareness.
The Fossil Q app had social components - connecting to friends, sharing on social, and listening to music. It was nothing overly complex, just fun entertainment, which is the Fossil brand.
Phase two included significant influencer partnerships with Kristen Bell, Leslie Odom, and Yara Shahidi. Our target customers loved the influencers, and our partnerships further expanded the brand and market penetration.
The Results
The initial launch was highly successful - doubling initial sales projections and increasing brand awareness. Fossil Q's brand awareness even surpassed the main Fossil brand.
