Diesel Takes 'Likes' Off the 'Net and Onto Jeans

Here's an idea with interesting potential. For Diesel, European comms firm Fullsix had a baby burp of an epiphany:

Facebook's Like capability has become an online content standard. If Liking pages, content and brands online is so successful for spreading brand equity around, the Like ought to be replicated in the real world.

So here's the idea:

1. You visit Diesel
2. You fall in love with a pair of jeans
3. Scan its QR code with your phone, aaaand...

...you'll be led to a product page that lets you click on a "Like" button and view other outfits.

Meanwhile, the jeans you liked will appear on your Facebook wall, letting everyone know:

a) that you're Diesel-shopping, and
b) what you're digging.

There's more that could be done with this campaign, but keeping it simmering as-is will make the data gathered invaluable. Last year an ExactTarget study found that the biggest reason users Like brands is for receiving discounts and promotions. (Second to that is showing support for the company.)

So imagine a connected world where people know what items you were digging in real-time. Ads would get better, discounts would get more tempting ... for Diesel alone, a pair of sale jeans with a lot of neglected Likes could result in some significant conversion, if the cards are played right. And that doesn't even touch what this information could do for product development.

The QR codes-on-jeans experiment is piloting in Madrid, Spain right now, but if successful it'll be rolled out across Europe. Hopefully they don't just stop at jeans.

(I would do anything to convince Diesel that Evelyn shoes are the best thing they've ever done, and if they'd only bring them back, I would buy no other tennis shoes for the rest of my life. But one can only dream.)