Interactive Website
DC Shoes TheBlackOps Collection Promotion Site
EKKO Media helped this renowned action sports brand, DC Shoes, bring their vision to life with this amazing promotional site.
client
- DC Shoes
- DC Shoes
Service
- Interactive Websites
Technology
- Vue
- PHP
- Laravel
Awards & Recognition
Project Background
DC Shoes is a leader in performance skateboarding shoes and a renowned action sports brand. The DC Product line ranges from men’s, women’s, and kids’ skateboarding, and lifestyle shoes, apparel, and accessories such as hats. The accessory products is a connection to the major North American retailer Lids with well over 1000 locations. DC Shoes was looking to kick off their new product line, the BlackOps Collection with this major retailer and needed a site that could generate major interest as well as a promotional program.
EKKO Media has a long history of high performing award-winning promotional sites. DC Shoes was familiar with EKKO Media’s past work and wanted to push the boundaries once again with something unique and engaging for users. A delivery timeline of less than 45 days once assets were delivered for a launch was tight but not something EKKO Media hasn’t successfully navigated and delivered for its clients in the past. After gathering details and discussing the project requirements this amazing site design and development kicked off.
Driving Engagement
The keys to a successful promotion are great social and in-store displays that help drive users to the promotional site. In addition to the external campaign promotion, the users experience on the promotional site is a critical aspect to the success of a promotion. EKKO’s challenge was to not only showcase the new products but to also create a site that would drive users to sign-in and complete the entry process.
Defining The User Experience
EKKO Media set their focus on design and function that drove user promotion engagement and the new BlackOps product showcase. The design process begins with a kick-off meeting with the client to gather all promotion requirements and available point of sale visuals. From this point, mood boards and overall site concepts are fleshed out to give the site direction. With a worldwide brand such as DC Shoes the feedback on these initial designs is critical to ensure the marketing message is on point with the product launch.
Platform and Development Frameworks
With a tight deadline, a standard site framework would have been the easy out…. But that's not how EKKO Media approaches their projects. Looking to work from some of the newest frameworks available, EKKO Media opted to use Laravel, Vue, and PHP. The Vue platform allowed EKKO Media to leverage the advantages of a SPA (single page application) while still maintaining strict SEO and web best practices. This gives the site a native application style where pages transition seamlessly between each other. EKKO Media’s talented developers pushed the boundaries once again on this award-winning website. The site is optimized for content delivery utilizing the Cloudflare CDN to ensure users the quickest load times regardless of device or geographical location.
Site Design
The promotional site design is really where this project shines. The user is instantly immersed in The DC BlackOps product line with elements of the campaign. The Los Angeles skyline connects the user with the campaign prizing and DC Shoes roots. The BlackOps campaign video anchors the right of the frame and scales to fill the user's video when clicked seamlessly transitioning to the product collection page. Intricate animation details help guide the users through the site without distracting from the core content.
From Desktop to Mobile and Everything In-Between
Understanding that DC Shoes and Lids consumer base is more mobile-focused is key with the design of the site. EKKO Media works from Mobile up to Desktop with the focus being on the higher engaging platform first. The experience overall needs to be the same but take into consideration the usage differences between devices.
Core Functionality and Features
EKKO Media kicked this project off with three main goals and understood what it would take to achieve those. The first was driving user entries into this promotion using a navigational design that made it simple for users to understand and quickly enter. The second was to showcase the BlackOps collection in a unique and visually stimulating presentation. The third goal was to connect users with the DC Shoes and Lids social platforms highlighting the daily posts to increase brand awareness.
Promotional Entry
Canada and the US were involved in this promotional form. In each country, a sweepstakes promotion form is presented to the user that validates their entry based on the region using geo IP location.
The BlackOps Collection
Resisting the temptation to show products on a flat plane, EKKO Media's task was to make the products come to life. Carousels cycle through products and lead users into product details with where to buy locations.
Social Spotlight
Building brand awareness and social engagement in today's market is key. The site helps promote the DC Shoes and Lids social Instagram accounts with a unique visual experience.
Project Outcome
As is the case with all projects, our goal is to surpass our client's expectations of their design and functionality goals on-time and on-budget. The awards we receive are icing on the cake.
Days to design & build
Awards and Counting