Summer Base Camp
The North Face

The brief - Always looking to improve a client’s story, I felt there was a need for The North Face to better link their disconnected premium brand values and high end advertising, siloed off from their chatty social media presence and undercut by their heavily discounted e-comms platform.

So we gathered the creative team in search of a proactive idea that could better articulate their brand and connect all three areas. And if we found it we’d have to convince a client that hadn’t asked for it to try it.

Idea - For anyone that knows me, I believe that any good idea is always driven by a simple, emotionally true, tension filled insight. And in Pandemic 2020, with Summer Camps cancelled, a lot of working parents (myself included) were looking after our kids at home while juggling work and slowly losing our minds . Well, what if we created an online Summer Camp? We could use the North Face athletes to give out virtual lessons, and the whole family could participate. The restless spirit of Never Stop Exploring could bring the brand to life even as everyone was holded up at home.

Work - We pitched it, and the fine folks at North Face dug. Our creatives immediately faced a different kind of challenge in having to program a two week camp curriculum. Not your average day at the office. Week one was centered on exploring the world right outside our homes and around our neighborhoods. The second week expanded the lens and was more globally focussed.

We created a bunch of promotional materials that drove 20k+ sign-ups, comprised of 80% new customers, with every family sharing their camp creations on socials. We ensured The North Face linked back to their products wherever possible and the story had synergy across all channels.

Sid Lee: ECD Mariota Essery.  CD Kelly Warkentien & Steven Townsend.