For Fall 2013 The North Face wanted to introduce a consistent design language across all aggresive Winter campaigns and increase creative allignment between the U.S and EMEA markets. The visual language would play a key role while narratives and athletes appropriate to each market would need to be changed to create local relevancy.
Steep Series : Launch campaign for the hyper-technical outerwear collection for big mountain riding and the skier/snowboarder that wants to take on out of bounds conditions. I developed a strong visual language and worked with assets created during an extreme snow sports expedition featuring Xavier De La Rue taking on the steepest slopes of Antartica. The creative was inspired by and connected to a strong narrative that came from the expedition and allowed us to get to the heart of the key product benefits through film, online story telling and throughout the instore experience.
Thermoball : Launch campaign for the synthetic down outerwear collection aimed at core outdoor and mass consumers. Through a range of bold seasonal colours and styles designed for the mass urban consumer, and the versatility of waterproof, lightweight jackets that attract a core consumer I worked with a positioning that would appeal to both audiences - 'Never one place, always one jacket'. I created a visual language that drew focus to product styles and colours against a backdrop of narrative that spoke to product versatility. At launch I used a product seeding stratgey to invite a mix of athletes and everyday consumers to use and talk about thier #Thermoball experiences. This was reflected through an instore activation that invited consumers to monobrand stores to test the product and share online.
Summit Series : Continuing on the success of the collection for alpinists that tackle the most demanding terrain with best in class layers that provide lightweight warmth.
The challenge from The North Face was to create a strong and clear visual approach in line with the Steep Series that spoke directly to the core alpinist consumer and highlighted the key product innovations.
'Innovation for firsts' spoke to the heritage of 'athlete tested, expedition proven' and highlits the new tech break throughs within the collection. To amplify the brand positioning I created focus on Never Stop Exploring by creating close proximity with the claim in all formats.
In all channels we created product focus and delivered the reason to believe through expedition narratives from White Nail Peak India where the product had been tested at up to 6000 meters in extreme weather conditions. The narrative from the expeditions came through in the stunning expedition imagery that fulfilled The North Face 'epic' brand positioning in exploration.
