RED FLAG

Short List
TitleRED FLAG
BrandTHE NORTH FACE
Product / ServiceTHE NORTH FACE CLOTHING
CategoryE01. Integrated Campaign Led by Promo
EntrantOGILVY SHANGHAI, CHINA
Entrant Company:OGILVY SHANGHAI, CHINA
DM/Advertising Agency:OGILVY SHANGHAI, CHINA

Credits

Credits

Name Company Position
Kevin Lee/Sean Sim/Natalie Lam/Zhu Hao Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Executive Creative Director
Kevin Lee/Kit Ong/Sean Sim/Natalie Lam/Kelvin Leong Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Creative Director
Kit Ong/Joan Zheng/Stanley Tao Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Copywriter
Kevin Lee/Kelvin Leong/Minsheng Zhang/Zhang Lei/Kama Zhang/Casper Woo/Kurt Durt/ Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Art director
Aywei Wong/Weisian Lee Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Agency producer
Chye Yee Chow/Liu Jin Ming/Joyce Chen Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai producer
Kai music Kai music sound production house
Mingsheng/Zhanglei/Kevin Lee/Hytal Ye Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Designer
Attic Post Attic Post Post production house
Zhang Lei Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai Typographer

The Brief

Never Stop Exploring is the line behind the brand The North Face. The North Face believes everyone can be an adventurer, and that we should never stop to explore the natural world around us. For the brand, China is a great challenge, as most modern Chinese have yet to adopt such a lifestyle. So how do we make these urban dwellers and Internet explorers take the first step?

Creative Execution

Only one person can claim one location, and the location claimed will be named by the conqueror. The race was on to see who would be the one to conquer China. We utilized a fully integrated plan that covered advertising, online and mobile marketing, in-store retail promotions, field marketing and live events at Beijing and Shanghai for over 18 days. Day by day, people kept score on the event website and outdoor electronic board, where a live counter tracked the total number of flags planted across China, by individuals and by location.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

In the world of outdoor adventure, an explorer would lay claim on a summit by planting a flag. And he would continue to do so on every other summit he has managed to conquer. We adopted this iconic action of planting flags as the idea for an integrated campaign. It became a fun and simple excuse to get people out of their comfort zone. All they needed was a mobile phone to plant “virtual red flags” at any location they want to stake a claim to.

Results

There were over two million unique visitors to the campaign website, and nearly 1.2 million people saw the live on-ground event in Beijing and Shanghai. Dealer store sales climbed 106% during these 18 days. Event coupon redemption was 150% above average. Over 651,000 red flags were planted during the campaign period. The champion planted over an amazing 4,000 red flags. It was a runaway success for The North Face. It didn’t take much to make people explore their world. All it took was a red flag.