How skater brand Bullyboy found a place in Cape Town's heart through viral campaign

Some of the hilarious posters claim the missing dogs are vegan, gluten-free and intermittent fasters, but when you scan the QR Code to try and help the ‘dog owner' it leads you to the edgy Bullyboy website.

“We had a lot of fun writing these posters as we tried to get into the mind of a diverse array of Cape Town stereotypes, by mentioning popular restaurants, cafes and bars and speaking directly to our audience in a humorous way. We all have to laugh at ourselves sometimes,” said founder Francesco Pareti.

“We enjoyed taking a deeper look into our stereotypes and making fun of ourselves. In putting up the posters, we ended up exploring a lot more of the inner city than we would have without intention, which was a great way to connect with the city as locals. Seeing people's reactions to the posters has always been the best part.”

Bullyboy was founded in late 2020 when Pareti noticed a gap in the market.

Over the years, the brand has grown and evolved in ways that have exceeded expectations. They’ve successfully built a strong community by recruiting sponsored skaters, brand ambassadors, and creatives who have played a key role in their photoshoots and campaigns.

Collaborating with local designers has helped shape the brand’s distinctive identity, while its international presence has expanded, with its products now stocked in retail stores across Indonesia, Germany, France, and the US.

In addition, they opened a skate and apparel store in Observatory, which has become a central hub for the local skate scene—hosting photoshoots, weekly skate events, and their highly popular “Guerilla” event that brought the skate community together to compete for prizes.

Said Pareti: “I was looking for cool graphic skateboard grip tape online while ordering a new board. I was looking for a skateboard grip tape with a unique graphic but could only find graphics targeted at kids with superheroes like Hulk and Spiderman."

Frustrated, he decided to design his grip tape and found a factory to manufacture them. He ended up making 100 and sold some of them to established stores.

Adds Pareti: “I thought I would have to come up with a name for my new grip tape company if I was going to approach stores so I came up with Bullyboy.

"I came up with the name because I wanted something easy to remember, but also plays into the product I was selling. Bullyboy means an aggressive man.

"I thought this was good as skateboard grip tapes are very rough in texture. At the same time though, I wanted the name to have a juxtaposition between a rough aesthetic that is not too intimidating and still puts across a soft feeling.”

This new campaign is the young brand's next step in making the brand noticeable to everyone through organic marketing.

“We feel this approach reflects our brand values of community and creativity which is why we are hesitant to push popular digital marketing tactics such as paid ads on social media.

"Our past marketing efforts have been focused on wheat pastes, graffiti and sticker bombs in and around hotspots in the city that acquire a high degree of foot traffic.

"We wanted to do something for First Thursdays when the majority of our target market has feet on the ground and are roaming the city in pursuit of community and art,” said Pareti.

The inspiration for their campaign came from a TikTok viral video where someone used posters to call out their cheating partner.

“The missing pet posters were our creative spin on the trend, which is how all great marketing campaigns are born; out of taking a unique approach to an idea that inspires you.

"Our goal with this campaign was to increase traffic to our website, thus increasing brand visibility and also creating a loyal customer base that randomly came across our posters, had a feel-good moment and created a positive connection with Bullyboy,” he added.

“We also intend for organic engagement like this to have a specific impact on our SEO for the website to increase visibility on a larger digital landscape.

"Active brand recall and repetitive marketing are what we're all about so even if the QR code was scanned, someone had a laugh and moved on with their day, the next time they see Bullyboy on someone's jeans, a sticker on a laptop or an Instagram story, we have created a subconscious impact which we hope will create a prominent brand image.”

Francesco Pareti is the founder of Bullyboy. Source: Supplied.

The brand’s marketing strategy has continuously evolved, moving from wheatpaste posters and graffiti to leaving grip tapes in unexpected locations, engaging with trending Kahoot TikToks, distributing stickers at markets, and sponsoring local and global skate events.

Their most recent marketing initiative—the “missing pet” poster campaign—has taken their unconventional, street-inspired approach to a new level.

Through all these efforts, the brand has stayed true to its core mission: to connect with the skate community while pushing the boundaries of skate culture and brand marketing.

He said the most rewarding part of running Bullyboy is when he goes out in public and sees a stranger wearing or skating a Bullyboy product.

"Another rewarding part of running Bullyboy and building such a loyal community would be when people regularly message us on Instagram asking to be sponsored or wanting to do collabs as they align with our message and philosophy of escaping the ordinary.

"This makes me happy as when I receive these messages I know that people are related to what we stand for on an emotional level and see Bullyboy not only as a brand but as lifestyle, a feeling, and a collective."

In the next few years, Pareti plans on opening a new store on Bree Street, doing a runway show, paying sponsored skaters a salary, and creating new and exciting products.

"Another amazing goal we aim to achieve would be to have an Olympic skater riding a Bullyboy product during the Olympics," he said.