Storeage, the Amsterdam based retail design agency, and Japanese sports lifestyle brand Onitsuka Tiger, created ‘66 Ways to Catch a Tiger,’ an Amsterdamwide brand activation campaign and piñata hunt designed to celebrate the launch of new Mexico 66 styles, the iconic Onitsuka Tiger sneaker. In the early hours of Friday, May 17th, a stealth team from Storeage hung 33 pairs of number 66 piñatas in key spots around Amsterdam’s city center, just out of reach, with a simple message to crack it open to find out what you have won.

Throughout the weekend of May 17th – 20th, Onitsuka Tiger customers, fans, and tourists who spotted the piñatas had opportunity take a swing for the chance to win a pair of Mexico 66s. Prizes were collected at Onitsuka Tiger’s store at Leidsestraat 27, where the campaign continued with in-store graphics, a teaser map of all the piñata locations around town and more piñata swinging.

Inspired by the iconic visual identity of the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, the bright piñatas and associated graphics are a celebration of the vibrant colors of Onitsuka Tiger’s Mexico 66 collection and of Mexican iconography.

Leading up to the weekend, the campaign was promoted with thousands of flyers, Boomerang postcards and social media postings. All featured the bold “66” graphics. The brand’s Leidsestraat store was converted into a Mexico 66 themed environment featuring hanging piñatas in the windows, striped vinyl graphics leading from outside into the flooring and walls, plus giant footwear imagery on the product-focused presentations.

“As the buzz built up around the weekend, it was fantastic to see curiosity turn into excitement to find the winning piñatas,” said Jason Steere, partner and co-founder at Storeage. “The combination of social media, traffic driving engagement and instore experience was the recipe for success. With brands vying for customer attention, this campaign achieved just that for Onitsuka Tiger.”

The results were a twofold increase in store traffic over a normal holiday weekend as well as tremendous online traffic between the various Onitsuka Tiger social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and their own Dutch website.