SHINOLA

shinola infused deep culture into it’s timepieces

Shinola wanted to tell authentic stories of migrants within Detroit and hired Tahmid to produce, direct, shoot, and edit these micro-docs. As a former Detroit native, Tahmid put his finger on the pulse of the community and brought out narratives from locals to exemplify their culture and embrace it with Shinola.

The project

  • Project Brief

    Shinola, an American lifestyle brand based in Detroit, aimed to connect with the local Muslim community for the month of Ramadan -- something the brand had never attempted before.

  • Challenge

    Shinola had never spoken to this audience so the content needed to be authentic to avoid coming off as pandering or a marketing play. The stories had to be told by someone who understood the community.

  • Apprroach

    As a Detroit native, our Creative Director, Tahmid took lead on this project and used his intimate knowledge of the community and the culture around Ramadan to craft videos that were both informative and personal. He proposed a three-part content series that highlighted the diverse Muslim population of Detroit, showed what Ramadan means to them, and demonstrated how they celebrate - without any focus on the Shinola brand or products.

The approach was to let local Detroit Muslims share their Ramadan experience directly through Shinola’s platform.

The approach was to let local Detroit Muslims share their Ramadan experience directly through Shinola’s platform.

TELLING An authentic story

part 1 : purpose

Highlight the purpose of Ramadan and the root of why Muslims fast. It was important to get to the core of Ramadan in the first video of this series.

Part 2: Tradition

Share the experience of breaking fast with loved ones. By referencing the traditional breaking of fast with dates, Shinola showed a deeper understanding of the community.

Part 3: Celebration

Speak to the diversity of Muslims in Detroit and wish everyone a blessed Eid Mubarak. Shinola touched upon the many different types of Muslims in this final video.

THE COMMUNITY RESPONSE

The numbers

Shinola earned an outpouring of comments commending their bold and authentic approach. Shinola ingrained itself as a part of its community while pulling more eyes and ears than they ever had before.

Video 1: PURPOSE

  • Highest performing video on Shinola’s page at the time of posting

  • 70.8K Views | 60 Comments | 406 Shares

  • 22% more views than previous highest video

  • Remains one of the top performing videos

Video 2: TRADITION

  • 25.1K Views | 38 Comments | 112 Shares

Video 3: CELEBRATION

  • 19.3K Views | 41 Comments | 63 Shares

Contact us

Ashish Yamdagni

Executive Producer

ashish@thethirdplacecreative.co