Skechers had launched a range of footwear for kids, with each shoe tied to a 'superhero' character. Having got our foot in the door with the company, we made a speculative suggestion: a radical idea to promote the range, harnessing all the power our channel integration and joined-up services could offer, and really bringing these four characters to life.

The objective of the campaign was to build awareness of the new Skechers products amongst the target marget, and build excitement around their launch.

The Skechers characters allowed kids to express themselves through their choice. What if we enabled our audience to keep expressing their personalities through the characters? What if we took a big risk and let them use the characters to choose what was on TV? Cartoon Network offered the perfect match for the brand and this innovative idea. We launched a special weekly slot on the channel, called Skechers Select. Each character was matched to a suitable pair of shows, and during the week viewers voted for the character and the programmes they wanted to see on a Friday.

The campaign to date has exceeded all expectations, with nearly 30,000 votes being cast in some weeks, for example, and ratings for the webdrive spots more than double the target set - while sponsorship idents are beating their ratings target by a factor of three.

To keep a steady pace going during the key holiday season, we found ways to keep refreshing the campaign, with new programming combinations, new spots and scenarios, and nice surprises - like mini games and competitions. We found this was a great way to keep interest alive and build a peak in excitement as close as possible to the Select slot. We also had to free up two hours of programming that we could not predict - with kids taking complete control of the schedule every week!