THE NORTH FACE – LONGER DAYS ARE BACK
THE NORTH FACE – LONGER DAYS ARE BACK
Situation
The North Face identified that in Spring/Summer European consumers were turning to other brands for activity wear and equipment due to the common perception that The North Face are a winter season brand only.
Objectives
Build awareness for The North Face spring/summer products and be more relevant to a consumer audience ranging from hardcore achievers to a mass audience, to be the one dominant pan-European outdoors brand. Establish a tone & visual language that connects with the EMEA market. Ensure The North Face is seen as part of consumers lifestyle all year-round.
Strategic Approach & Tools
Consumer interviews, data analysis, brand audit, competitor audit, EMEA new brand positioning and USP, marketing audit, key consumer insight mining, communications direction and SS14 strategy development.
Solution and Results
The North Face’s spring/summer collection challenges consumers to take advantage of the extra hours of daylight. “Longer Days are Back” was the key message used across multiple platforms inspiring people to get outdoors. The initial tease was executed through social media followed by a TVC, an online photo contest, the Explorer app plus a homepage takeover. This not only boosted brand engagement, but also showed the diverse possible uses of the products.
The North Face® is known as one of the world’s greatest outdoor brands, with a fully established presence across the winter sports sector. Our goal was to show consumers that The North Face® should be their year-round brand of choice. To do this, we needed to bring spring and summer to life like never before.
This required a strategy that would capture the excitement and potential of the brand, long after the snow has melted. For our message to be instantly effective, we needed to raise engagement with The North Face consumers to a new engagement level…
The solution:
LONGER DAYS ARE BACK
“A fully integrated campaign celebrating the extra hours of daylight during spring, inspiring everyone to run, hike, climb, and explore longer.”
“The Longer Days Are Back SS14” Campaign Overview
In order to highlight the return of Spring/Summer and create a storytelling link to The North Face trail running, Summit Series, hiking and climbing collections, we explored the consumer’s emotional response to seasonal change. Spring is a time of anticipation – a fresh start with new activities and longer hours of daylight, which means more time to get outside. “We can’t wait to get outside, and go longer”.
With this valuable insight we created the ‘Longer Days’ communication platform and the first fully integrated 360 marketing campaign for The North Face Europe.
The campaign celebrates seasonal change and the benefits of the outdoors via an emotionally led brand position around exploration, creating a rich and deep brand experience that inspires consumers to get out and ‘go longer’, with a focus on owning extra daylight hours. It connects consumers through inspiration to get out more, by creating an online community and supplying the tools (via a digital platform and mobile app) to share challenges and experiences
Tease: The campaign kick started online through social posts and online PR featuring the ‘We are ready’ tease film, and via a network of brand and athlete social channels talking to the concept of preparation for the coming season.
THE NORTH FACE LONGER DAYS from nathanael potter on Vimeo.
Online teaser released 7 days prior to reveal phase.
Reveal: On the 28th of March, the night before the clocks changed in Europe for daylight savings, we released the ‘Longer Days Are Back’ TVC during prime time via the broadcast networks in the UK and Germany.
Over 800 spots airing over two weeks in the UK and Germany. Generated over 100 million views. Innovative video-based digital campaign in the UK and Germany. A mix of online, social and mobile networks were used to achieve over 3 million views.
On the 29th March a new digital platform was unveiled alongside the Explorer app to support the ‘Longer Days’ digital Activation.
THE NORTH FACE – LONGER DAYS ARE BACK from Aboki Interactive Animation on Vimeo.
Activity based marketing: Throughout summer 4 x ABMs support the brand communication to ‘Go Longer’ in Trail Running, Hike, Climbing and Summit Series product ranges. All campaigns continue brand story telling of summer exploration via social and digital, PR, sports marketing, retail and trade channels.
RESULTS
Summit International Award (Emerging Media Award for most innovative campaign).
Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award (Platinum in the category “Integrated”)
2015/2016 ISPO Award for fully-integrated campaigns
Credits:
Agency: Factory Design Labs Verbier
CD: Nathanael Potter
Strategy: Frank Persyn / Rebekah Pothaar
Digital Design: Nicolas Combes