Over the last few days I’ve noticed ads for Volley Warehouse appearing on various news sites I frequent. As much as I hate those god awful annoying animated ‘Hey Hey This is Queensland’ ads, the Volley Warehouse ads suckered me and I wound up clicking to see what they were about.

Turns out it’s a new viral marketing campaign for the shoe, the Dunlop Volley.

Credit given where credit is due though, and after Kraft’s iSnack 2.0 scam the advertising industry could learn alot from the people behind Volley Warehouse.

The premise is a series of infomercials with somewhat amusing products behind them. Some of them are crap, such as the ‘All In One’ zip suit but the ‘Dish Jockey’ and ‘Close Call’ I found hilarious.


Especially loved the ‘Vietnamese built’ popup message. I think all advertising should be this blatantly cheesy.

Also I’m not sure where they sourced the token ugly guy from, but I hope they put him back in his cave when they’re done… seriously I know he’s not supposed to be captain suave but that’s the worst face I’ve seen in ages.

To ‘win’ one of the items (apparently there’s only one of each), you need to fill in some form telling them you deserve the item in three words or less.

Just a note though for anyone thinking of entering, your standard ‘we will use your information for marketing purposes’ disclaimer applies:

The information entrants provide will be used by the Promoter for the purpose of conducting this Promotion and for future direct marketing purposes. The Promoter may disclose Entrants personal information to contractors and agents for direct marketing purposes.


So enter at your own risk.

Whilst, like most internet users, I’m weary of dodgy advertising campaigns it was refreshing to see someone put some actual effort into their campaign. Sure the campaign runs way too long (finishing up on the 11th of January 2010) and will get annoying in a week or so but at least it’s not just blatant ‘HEY YOU BUY OUR PRODUCT!’ advertising.

With Volley Warehouse, Pacific Brands seem to have hit just the right amount of entertainment with advertising their product. The focus is on the content and although the videos are littered with gratuitous shots of the shoes it’s not blatant enough to turn you off.

Additionally for those wondering who’s behind the website the information isn’t tucked away and hidden in obscurity which is usually the go with these sorts of viral marketing campaigns so again points for transparency there.

Just a few weeks ago when I was searching for thermal tshirts I was actually looking at buying a pair of black Dunlop Volleys but Kmart didn’t have my size. I think after watching those videos I’m going to go have a look again in the city later on in the week for a pair.

Whaddya know, advertising works.

You can see the rest of the mock infomercials at Volley Warehouse’s Youtube channel.


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