Kenneth Cole Unveils First Ever Marketing Campaign Optimized for Google Glass to Launch New Mankind Fragrance

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Mar 5, 2014) - Launching today, the Kenneth Cole MANKIND website is a social hub and playground for men to experience the core essence of the Mankind fragrance.

The campaign is one of the first to leverage a native Google Glass application that -- once downloaded -- loads a daily "deed" over a 21-day period. As a user completes each deed, he can take a photo of the act and share it. Participants' deeds will be placed into a collage with other photo entries to be displayed on the MANKIND site. Today's announcement is a first-ever marketing campaign to leverage Google Glass.

The running theme of the campaign is "See, Embody and Honor the Evolution of Mankind," and it delivers a real-time look into the evolution of mankind through curated social posts, editorial and campaign assets. There are several unique elements that make up the entirety of the cross-platform Mankind campaign, these include:

• See.
  
  
  • Mankind Today. The campaign's centerpiece will be located at www.MankindFragrance.com, where visitors can learn more about the campaign, take the "Man Up for Mankind" challenge, read up on manhood-related materials, view real-time tweets with the hashtag #ManUpForMankind, check out photos from other participants who've completed their daily deeds, and have the opportunity to define the modern man by personalizing the hashtag for each tweet, which can be sent from the MankindFragrance.com website or via Google Glass. For example, "A gentleman always has (#this item) in his closet," "Every gentleman knows how to (#this skill)," or "Every gentleman has read (#this book)."
    
    
  • Data Visualizations. A series of infographics will convey the evolution of mankind over the past century. For each decade, an infographic will illustrate the Cocktail, Fashion Trend, Music and Hobby that had the biggest impact on mankind. For example, during the Roaring 20s, men were wearing top hats, drinking Gin Rickeys, listening to jazz and playing cards, while in the 50s, men were drinking White Russians, wearing Sport Coats, listening to folk music and Rock & Roll and engaging in sports like football and baseball.
    
    
• Embody.
  
  
  • Google Glass & 21 Days/21 Deeds Challenge. A vital part of the Mankind fragrance campaign is that a native Google Glass application has been developed for it. Once downloaded, a daily "deed" loads over the course of 21 days. Each day loads a demonstrative image for a deed, i.e "buy a stranger a coffee," "donate old clothes to a local shelter," etc. As a participant completes each deed, he can take a photo of his act of kindness and share it. Each completed deed will be placed into a collage with other photo entries to be displayed on the Mankind site. Users who sign up via email will receive a daily deed in their inbox, and also be entered for a chance to win.
    
    
  • Man Up for Mankind Challenge. The Man Up for Mankind Challenge will ask users to find out how much they have evolved through a series of inquisitive scenarios and multiple-choice questions. For example: Your girlfriend calls up and says she's sick and can't go out tonight. Do you: a. Bring her bowl of chicken soup; b. Go out with old friends or c. Call an old girlfriend. As each question is answered accurately, the visitor will advance to the next stage of evolution.
    
    
• Honor.
  
  
  • Nominate. Visitors to MankindFragrance.com will be able to honor and nominate a man in their life that embodies the qualities of a modern gentleman. A winner will be selected by Kenneth Cole.
    
    

The campaign will be complemented and driven via traditional display advertising campaign elements, email campaign elements, a contextually-driven 21 Days/21 Deeds out-of-home campaign in NYC only, and social media assets that are both paid and organic.

"This is an exciting moment for us. We are transforming the way we collaborate with our target customer across platforms," said Donald J. Loftus, President of Parlux Ltd. and Executive Vice President of Perfumania Inc. "21 Days/21 Deeds is a call to arms -- a rallying cry for a generation of men to break free from the idea that anything is predetermined and to take control of their future. We have always tapped into the transformative power of technology and always looked for a way to do things differently and with higher ambitions, we welcomed the opportunity to explore activating this campaign with Google Glass. With 21 Days/21 Deeds, we'll take a more active part in stimulating transformation while pushing the technology forward."

"At Ready Set Rocket we have a great track record of providing insights, technology and creativity to produce unparalleled results for marquis brands such as Kenneth Cole. We understand the challenges that global brands face when navigating the complex marketing landscape to reach their consumers and create unique, engaging experiences that build brand and business equity," said Aaron Harvey, Partner at Ready Set Rocket. "Kenneth Cole's Mankind is the first campaign built from the ground up to leverage the unique attributes of Google Glass. It's designed to help us orchestrate the campaign across web, social and mobile; it's engineered to evolve over time. We are thrilled to be able to put all of this power into the hands of Kenneth Cole to help them achieve success and engage consumers whether they are using Google Glass, their desktop, mobile device or tablet."

About Ready Set Rocket
Ready Set Rocket is a digital agency that bridges cutting edge creative thinking, technological expertise, data analysis, and impeccable design execution, leveraging all communication and interaction channels to transform human behavior into consumer action for brands. Ready Set Rocket works with blue chip clients in Fashion/Retail, Media/Entertainment, CPG and other verticals producing award-winning digital marketing programs developed through the synthesis of data, creativity and technological know-how.

Founded in 2009, Ready Set Rocket's senior team is led by co-founders, Aaron Harvey and Alex Lirtsman. Ready Set Rocket is headquartered in New York. For more information, visit www.readysetrocket.com or email info@readysetrocket.com.

ABOUT KENNETH COLE
Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. designs, sources and markets a broad range of footwear, handbags, apparel and accessories under the brand names Kenneth Cole Collection, Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction and Unlisted, as well as footwear under the proprietary trademark Gentle Souls. The Company has also granted a wide variety of third party licenses for the production of men's, women's and children's apparel as well as fragrances, watches, jewelry, eyewear, and several other accessory categories. The Company's products are distributed through department stores, better specialty stores, company-owned retail stores and its e-commerce website. Further information can be found at http://www.kennethcole.com.

ABOUT PARLUX LTD
Parlux Ltd., established in 1987, is a leading global beauty company that designs, manufactures, markets and distributes prestige fragrances and related products. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Parlux Fragrances, LLC; a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfumania Holdings Inc., an independent, national, vertically integrated wholesale distributor and specialty retailer. Perfumania is traded on the NASDAQ exchange (PERF).