In September 2021, TNF called with an interesting proposal: they had their first ever premium footwear platform for trail, but needed to crack their go to market. With only four months until launch, they needed a creative strategy and a non-traditional campaign that shied away from paid media. They had the executional firepower with their rosters of partners, but needed the creative solution to work on both a global and local scale.
For years, The North Face has led the charge of peak athleticism in the outdoors.
Client // The North Face: Vectiv
Assignment // Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Global Advertising Campaign, Digital Experience Design, Global Messaging and Campaign Toolkit, Photography + Motion Design
Leveraging the power of community to elevate a product launch to a brand statement.
After spending our discovery and research phase with the technology, VECTIV, we found that this platform was and is the real deal. Elite athletes regularly beat FKTs (fastest known times) on a variety of trails using prototypes; the curved sole of the shoe literally rocked the wearer forward to the point where in our research we often exclaimed, “I can’t walk straight in these!”
Now that we had our wayfinding, the next hurdle was execution. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging around the globe, how could we drive trial and buzz when all trail races, events, and outdoor gatherings were canceled?
Enter Further Together.
As a direct reflection to the campaign, our internal work flow emphasizes collaboration and building tools for TNF to use across all of their channels and countries. The collaborative concepts resulted in strong brand messaging, positioning toolkits, photography guidelines, motion graphics, and videography for TNF’s global marketing teams to leverage again and again.
We knew we had the proof for the power and integrity behind the product; but how could we turn a product into a brand campaign under TNF’s umbrella?
Our strategy turned from a traditional product marketing campaign to a product marketing campaign designed to look like a brand campaign. For the story, we returned to the technology innate to VECTIVE: “Energy Multiplier.” The momentum, forward movement, and emotional mindset of the consumers all pointed toward our eventual territory and rallying cry: “Power Further.”
Rather than focusing on the innovation story alone, we grounded the campaign in this emotional drum beat bringing the look and feel to life in photography and videography of pushing boundaries, thumping up the trail, the explosive, exponential energy.
This campaign could never be about the solo athlete or the individual trail runner—during COVID-19 we yearned for and needed community more than ever. Partnering with Strava we launched the challenge, “Power Further, Together” to the running community, asking over half a million runners worldwide to join TNF in pushing their boundaries to reach extraordinary heights. The campaign generated over 523,000 signups with an 80% active participation rate for a global result of 37MM miles. And that was just month one.
