Mizuno Mezamashii Project

The Mizuno Running Mezamashii Project won 5 Silver Effie awards and Mizuno was named Best Brand of 2013.

Meritus Media was chosen to do the dedicated and influential running blogger outreach.  We researched the list of bloggers to contact and did the first outreach requesting their physical address so that the lead agency, McKinney, could send them the hand-written invitation to the Mezamashii project.  We got a very good response and this first outreach already started the buzz in the running community.  There was a lot of speculation about the project and what we were sending them. They received a handmade, direct mail invitations and a code to order a free pair of shoes at the Mezamashii Run Project site.

We followed up with all the bloggers we had reached out to ensure that they had ordered their shoes and tracked all mentions of Mizuno and Mezamashii.  Brand favorability, which was reflected in comments made by Mezamashii Run Project members who rated the shoes they received, grew 54%, from 7% to 10.8%, in the first five weeks of media support. Of those Mezamashii Run Project members posting reviews, 94% gave top 2 box scores to the shoes and 93% said they intend to buy Mizuno shoes in the future.