According to Nine, Kylie Minogue performed in the pre-match entertainment at Saturday's AFL Grand Final at the MCG, the first-ever meeting of the Fremantle Dockers and Brisbane Lions in a Grand Final, wearing custom gold, silver, and black heeled boots made by Melbourne brand Bared Footwear. A U.S. PR agency made the introduction, and founder Anna Baird made 12 boots in total for the appearance.
Bared is an 18-year-old Melbourne label started by a podiatrist. "From day one the goal has been to make shoes that look amazing without asking you to sacrifice how your feet feel." The Grand Final job was, in her words, "we worked faster than I think we ever have with our factory, and ended up making 12 boots in total." Twelve boots, for three pairs, for one singer, for one stadium, for the biggest audience in Australian sport.
The part that makes this a case study is the logistics of the secret. Baird did not ship the boots. "The timing was so tight that I actually brought them back to Melbourne with me on the plane. There was no way I was letting those boots out of my sight." Her team was "kept reminding everyone in the team that it was a very big secret. There was a lot of excitement in the office." That is the honest corporate description of a press embargo. The secret was never the boots. The secret was the moment. You can sell the boots any Tuesday. You can only sell the moment once, in front of the whole country.
The sweetest line is the one at the end: Baird never once met Minogue. "I wish I could say I did. That would have been pretty incredible." And after the final: "I'm still having those little moments where I think, 'Did that actually just happen?'" A podiatrist from Melbourne who personally flew her own product onto a plane, never met the woman who wore it, and stood in an office full of people being reminded it was a very big secret. That is not a brand deal. That is an 18-year-old company with a carry-on bag and the nerve to put its name on the biggest stage in the southern hemisphere.
YOUR TURN: If the "very big secret" is a press release with the timestamp taken off, what is a real secret worth?
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