Fashion footwear brand Tony Bianco has launched a historic new initiative to celebrate 40 years in operation.
The brand, established in 1973, has grown rapidly since inception and has now developed a cutting-edge competition and exclusive Facebook application to mark the 40-year milestone.
The Facebook application, titled The Vault, was created in conjunction with online toolbox Peazie and presents as a custom built, ‘virtual museum’ of shoes through time.
Available to existing fans of the brand on Facebook (238,000) and new fans who ‘Like’ the page, the virtual shoe world allows users to upload photos of their favourite Tony Bianco shoes or vintage Tony Bianco’s throughout the years of the 70s and 80s, 90s and 00s.
Populated by user-generated content, Tony Bianco’s Vault aims to collate imagery of the brand's shoes and tell the story behind them.
The Vault users can also share with friends either by sharing the app, or sharing individual images, and can also ‘like', ‘share’ or ‘want’ an image or a particular style of shoe. The brand is expected to later recreate the most popular old favourite through the most ‘wants'.
In addition, a $5,000 diamond from Melbourne jeweller, JMS Diamonds will be given to the upload deemed the best.
Commenting on the campaign, Tony Bianco director Anthony Bianco said The Vault was testament to the brand's understanding of the phrase “innovate or die”.
“I want our brand to be the most innovative in the country and joining forces with like-minded people such as the Peazie team I feel we can achieve this,” he said.
The Vault application will be promoted via Tony Bianco’s database (150,000 members), its Facebook and Twitter pages, the brand's official website, blog and a PR campaign.
The official competition period will close on December 21, 2012, with the winner of the JMS Diamond to be notified by December 24, 2012.
Following the competition period ending, The Vault will remain live through the Tony Bianco Facebook environment with the information and images collected to be placed into the souvenir ‘In His Shoes – 40 Years of Tony Bianco’ book which will be published and available early 2013.