In the End, the Booty Reader Doesn’t Translate

• Aug 4th, 2010
• Posted by Lindsey
• Posted in "Do these jeans make my...?", booty, caboose, hiney, Old Navy, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Social Shopping

Special thanks to Cody and Feran for their contributions.

When Old Navy sent a tweet out searching for all kinds of “bootys,” we knew we needed to take a closer look (at the campaign, of course).

Old Navy, with the artistic direction of our friends at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, developed a new campaign just in time for back to school shopping. The “Booty Reader” web application asks women to upload pictures of their derrières in order to help them find the pair of Old Navy jeans best suited for them. When this was first brought to my attention, I thought to myself, “who in their right mind take a picture of their rear end and then upload it to a site to see what type of jeans they should buy?” Then the office started talking about it– and I decided that person was me. And not only did I do it, but Feran Morgret AND Cody Goins also participated in this little experiment.

When you enter the micro-site, which is headed by clairvoyant booty-judger Madame Eva, six tarot cards are laid on a table with different scenarios to choose from. We choose the same cards in order to have a constant in our “little” experiment. Our cards were The Juggler, The Lovers and The Tower. Our independent variables are the three rear ends we used. And of course our dependant variable was the actual tool.

Taking the Booty Challenge is not something to be rushed. Eva is quite particular with your submission and then even has you go an additional step using a stretchable line called “Aphrodite’s Belt” to help produce more accurate visual measurements. In retrospect, it may not be a good idea to wear a flowy blouse for your photo shoot.

We figured that because we used the same cards we would have at least 1 out of 3 of the results return to being the same. After taking 15 photos each (only needing 2) and cropping photos, we decided this was not an easy task for the non-tech savvy consumer. Our photos had to be in the exact right position to match where Madame Eva’s hands were. Each of us has a very different body type and the results were all different. Feran’s booty sign returned as a “Passionistica,” Cody was a “Bottomminium” and my booty sign was “Denimi.”

Although this was fun and we laughed, a lot, as a Social Media Agency we were a bit disappointed. The sharing options to this potential viral campaign were limited, not allowing you to share your results but simply give your friends and followers a link to the Booty Reader site. It also only allowed you to share via Facebook , Twitter and Email.

We always watch for fun and interesting campaigns to come through the social sphere and give the office a good laugh as we experiment with them. This was a campaign that fit all of the necessities for us to try it out, it didn’t seem to be so automated that everyone got the same results, and it did give multiple options in fit and in color. The descriptions were . . .well, a bit depressing (except for Cody’s, as he was extremely pleased that his perfect jean fit was “Skinny Diva”) but overall, the campaign was fun and should get a young demographic (and probably some agency folk) to play with it.

Is it this destined to be the next big viral campaign? Probably not, but hey, we’re no Madame Eva. . . I guess the next step to this in-depth assessment of Old Navy’s latest interactive marketing tool is to probably go try a pair of these denims on and see if Madame Eva is indeed accurate or just another fortune-telling scam artist (I’m still waiting for the stars to align into position for my winning lotto ticket). But for $19 bucks – who cares if Madame Eva says it’s your fate or not?