Smiley x Lee Jean collab wraps up with giant pool party at Elrow in Amsterdam

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 5, 2018

UK-based Smiley and denim brand Lee Jeans are wrapping up their SS18 European partnership with a major marketing activation at the Elrow Town Festival, which takes place at NDSM Docklands in Amsterdam this Saturday.

The event follows other activations last month at the Antwerp and London Elrow events following the debut of the Smiley x Lee collab launch in June. The collection has been a “bestseller’ in Europe, after a successful run in Asia, with Smiley saying the products sold out during July.

But the festival activity is a key part of a regular ongoing marketing programme both for Smiley itself and for the brands it partners with. And Smiley told Fashion Network that it helps both to forge closer ties with festival culture and the consumers who enthusiastically buy into the festival lifestyle during the summer season.

Linking with Elrow is a particularly strong move as its reputation is riding high. Its series of European immersive dance music events are known for their strong production values. So far in London and Antwerp, Smiley and Lee Jeans have been part of two giant parties and the Amsterdam event will see stilt walkers, giant inflatable creatures, glitter cannons, and tens of thousands of colourful, glitter-clad, costume-wearing pool-partygoers in Amsterdam this weekend.

The company created an exclusive activation designed to travel across all three of the festival sites, “paying homage to the collection's theme of celebrating the sunshine and partying long into the night.” It features a custom-built SmiLee pool adorned with Smiley faces, filled with thousands of yellow balls, “created to give off a ‘pool party’ vibe for revellers.”

“Smiley continues to work with the world’s leading brands to leverage our authentic reputation as an icon of the electronic music party scene,” said its VP of Marketing, Maria Raposo. She added that the partnership highlights the “incredibly positive marketing message to create meaningful and memorable customer experiences” that the brand specialises in.

The joint 360 marketing program for the collection was a key element of the Lee and Smiley partnership, with it being promoted online, featured on Instagram stories with curated content that drove all social channels, plus a custom retail shop window activation and a gift-with-purchase promotion available at all the denim brand’s owned and operated stores.