The North Face encourages Chinese urbanites to 'go wild'

Produced collaboratively by O&M Advertising, OgilvyOne and Ogilvy PR in Shanghai for outdoor sports gear and apparel company The North Face, the "go wild” campaign encourages city dwellers who are stuck in a lifestyle rut to break out of it.

The alternative, of course, is living in the great outdoors.

The campaign centres on a series of four short films, directed by Chinese film director Lu Chuan, that document the journeys of a former mountaineering coach, an adventurous book author, a wildlife photographer/environmentalist and a successful entrepreneur.

The four protaganists rediscover themselves and those around them through explorations of nature and by challenging their physical and mental limits.

In one film, Sun Mian, founder and director of China Newsweekly, a state-controlled magazine, takes his grown son on a mountain hike in Tibet. The story depicts the generation gap between the aging father and his young son, and how the pair bond while they tackle nature together.

The campaign will run from March to July. Outdoor ads have also been placed in areas with heavy traffic including subway stations, Wangfujing in Beijing and Xujiahui in Shanghai to complement the documentaries.

OgilvyPR deployed key-opinion-leader mapping strategies to identify suitable personalities who could be featured in the documentaries.

OgilvyOne took care of the digital and mobile executions of the campaign. A microsite was built to spark online discussion about outdoor exploration. A mobile app with both iPhone and Android versions, in partnership with location-based service provider Jiepang, was created to spur geographical check-ins.

“The ‘go wild’ message is great because it tackles cultural tensions head on," said Debby Cheung, president of O&M Shanghai and group managing director of Ogilvy PR China. "Consumers in China’s big cities are plagued with various pressures at work and at home. The campaign offers an antidote to urban fatigue by inspiring Chinese consumers, who are generally new to the idea of spending time in nature as recreation, to go beyond their daily commutes in gridlocked traffic."

In addition to the four films, Ogilvy created a short, humorous video manifesto that dares urbanites to slow down their fast-paced lifestyles and let themselves “go wild” by spending a weekend in nature.

Credits:

Project title: “Go Wild”
Client: The North Face®
Brief: Create a 360 Degree campaign to make The North Face’s brand proposition of
connecting with nature relevant to urban Chinese consumers
Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai
Brand Strategy: Edward Bell
Creative: Kama Zhang, Graham Fink, Francis Wee, Stanley Tao, Fiona Chen, Huijun Dong
Engagement Planning: Keen Yim, Morgan Cao
Account Management: Morgan Cao
Agency Producer: Aywei Wong
Film Script: Vivian Tu, Stanley Tao
PR: Vivian Tu, Summer Jin, Nara Hu, Vicky Yu, Diane Deng
Media agency: Neo@Ogilvy
Production house: Chuan Films Production
Exposure: print, OOH, digital (including mobile)