Out-of-the-pocket thinking

It’s a common refrain of older people — that the young often live out of their denims, not washing them for months altogether and wearing them practically every other day. But much to the horror of elders, and to the delight of the youngsters, this concept could catch on if a recent product launch becomes a success.

The story of the Roadster’s 13-pocket denims launched by online fashion retailer Myntra began last month in a Bengaluru mall. To show that all you need for surviving 48 hours is a trouser with 13 pockets, the company hired Eric Monjoin, a Paris-born entertainer. To demonstrate how functional this pair of jeans could potentially be, Pocketman (as the trouser is called and was Monjoin’s nickname for this act) spent 48 hours in a make-shift man-cave inside a Bengaluru mall a few weeks ago. During his time in ‘captivity’ Monjoin had nothing but the contents of his denim’s pockets — eggs, cola cans, cotton wool, among other things — to keep him occupied and his audience entertained.

During these two days, Pocketman was constantly under the intruding gaze of the netizens, many of whom engaged him in conversation using media like the brand’s own microsite and other social media avenues like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Among the many things that Pocketman did in his “cave” included making a make-shift gas stove using a cola can. He even made crepes to show that the stove did indeed work.

At other times, he engaged with his online audience showing magic tricks or by simply making funny faces. “This was like a miniature version of big brother,” says Manish Aggarwal, Vice President, Marketing, Myntra Fashion Brands.

Limited edition, for now He says that the unusual campaign to launch a fashion product has got a tremendous response. According to the company, about 22.8 million people heard about Pocketman in some way or the other. Even the trailer to promote the launch activity was watched more than 6.2 lakh times.

Company executives add that this was also the longest ever continuous live-tweeting activity in history and the longest commercial ever made of any product in history and India’s longest running live-stream ever.

But for all the time Monjoin spent in captivity, the trouser is meant to do exactly the opposite. The denim is meant for the rugged outdoors. Priced at ₹3,999, the jeans are in a limited edition launch with only 2,000 pairs being available as of now. Aggarwal does not give out sales numbers but says the demand for the trouser has surpassed expectations. Because of the excitement around the campaign and the earned media gains that followed, it would be appropriate to say that an idea born in captivity was a runaway hit.

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