CLARKS INTERNATIONAL
YOTOY DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
Regular clients across many years, Clarks approached Designworks to help elevate the perception of their traditional children’s school shoes, and increase the engagement children and parents got from the brand.
We were able to bring our experience and understanding of toys, trends, licensing and children as consumers to develop a novel concept that Clarks could own, “the toy that hides in your shoe.” The format could be adapted to both girls and boys across a variety of ages, giving Clarks a platform to grow this separate sub-brand, “YoToy.”
The YoToy characters Jack Nano, Daisy and the GloForms ultimately became brands in themselves, with their own adverts and comics, helping Clarks connect with children in a way that wasn’t previously possible.
Our end-to-end process enabled us to not only develop the YoToy concept, but also take the proposition into design, prototyping, manufacture and supply; all completed and managed in-house. The YoToy product considers not only aesthetics and play value, but technical constraints relating to shoe manufacturing processes, target costs, toy safety and mass-production.
YoToy helped change the shoe buying experience, transforming it into an event of core brand engagement and consumer delight, reducing the ‘pain’ experienced by parents when having their children fitted. The estimated retail sales value due to the introduction of YoToy reached over £180,000,000.
